RIYADH: The Saudi Arabian Hajj and Umrah ministry has announced that only fully vaccinated pilgrims with two doses will be allowed to apply for the permit for performing Umrah and prayer at the Grand Mosque in Makkah starting Sunday, Oct. 10. The Saudi local media reported that the same requirements will apply for the permits to visit the Rawdah Sharif at the …

LAHORE: Former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Khalid Mahmood on Saturday expressed his disappointment over a statement of incumbent PCB chairman Ramiz Raja before the Senate Standing Committee on Sports given this week that “Pakistan cricket could collapse if the Indian prime minister decides to stop Pakistan’s funding (from the ICC)”. “As a former chairman of the PCB who has been …

KARACHI: Pakistan has witnessed record foreign exchange spending on highest-ever arrival of new automobiles in 2020-21 on strong demand followed by revival of used vehicles imports. The country imported record 10,513 units of new cars, jeeps, vans, pickups, two-wheelers and buses in FY21 compared to 1,680 units in FY20, 3,716 units in FY19 and 7,424 units in FY18. Besides, for …

LAHORE: Captaincy can be taxing for many an individual on a sporting field. But Iftikhar Ahmed proved that theory otherwise in Lahore on Saturday. Leading Khyber Pakht­unkhwa following the departure of Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi on World Cup duty, he drew inspiration on all fronts. Iftikhar was the supreme commander in the National T20 Cup as excelled with …

The governing International Cricket Council (ICC) has taken a wait-and-watch approach on Afghanistan but will discuss the game’s fate in the country in a board meeting next month, ICC acting chief executive Geoff Allardice said on Sunday. Afghanistan risk isolation since the country’s Taliban takeover in August, with Cricket Australia threatening not to host them for a one-off Test in Hobart next …

Tyson Fury retained his World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title on Saturday when he sent Deontay Wilder to the canvas for a third time with a vicious right hand to the head in the 11th round at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, US. The enthralling slugfest was more competitive than many expected but still ended as most predicted, with …

LAHORE: It was an abject surrender as Southern Punjab’s wretched National T20 Cup campaign came to a shuddering halt in Lahore. Friday’s night fixture at the Gaddafi Stadium saw last season’s runners-up suffered their seventh defeat in nine matches of this edition, while Sindh temporarily surged to the top of the table on the back of Sharjeel Khan’s swashbuckling century …

KARACHI: The contentious proposal to adopt a ‘weighted average cost of gas’ (WACOG) to reduce the rapid build-up of the circular debt in the gas sector is going to receive a “serious push” soon. “It’s a political hot potato… I’m told that within a few months there’s going to be a serious push on the political side to get (WACOG) …

LAHORE: Textile exports grew 26 per cent to $1.503 billion in September, according to the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association. The textile exports earlier registered year-on-year growth of 29pc in the first two months (July and August) of 2021-22 as compared with the corresponding period of the preceding year. In August, exports jumped by 45pc to $1.5bn against $1bn in …