UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan urged the international community on Wednesday not to allow politics to deny the right to life to the people of Afghanistan. “The Afghan people need massive and unconditional humanitarian assistance from the international community to avoid a major human catastrophe,” said Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram while urging the world body to act now. “Financial liquidity must …

SRINAGAR: India has sent thousands more paramilitary troops into occupied Kashmir, already one of the world’s most militarised zones, after a string of targeted killings in recent weeks, officials said on Wednesday. New Delhi has for decades stationed at least 500,000 soldiers in the occupied valley. “Around 2,500 troops have arrived and they were deployed all over [occupied] Kashmir valley,” Abhiram Pankaj, …

TAXILA: Police on Wednesday booked a teacher for allegedly sexually harassing three primary school students in the jurisdiction of Pindigheb Police station. The suspect, deputed at Government Primary Model School Dhoke Mound, Mianwala was exposed when one of the victims, 13, lodged a complaint against him. When he took the matter to the school administration, two more students lodged similar …

DUBAI: Papua New Guinea have withdrawn from the Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe after several of their squad tested positive for Covid-19, the Internat­ional Cricket Council (ICC) said on Wednesday. Papua New Guinea had been scheduled to face West Indies on the opening day of the Nov 21-Dec 5 qualifiers but are unable to field a team. The …

KABUL: The Taliban on Wednesday appointed former all-rounder Mirwais Ashraf as acting chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board to replace Azizullah Fazli, who was in charge for just two months. Afghanistan media reported the decision was taken after demands by national players while meeting Taliban officials in Abu Dhabi during the ongoing Twenty20 World Cup. “The prime minister of the …

DUBAI: Pakistan’s batting consultant Matthew Hayden has backed top-order batter Fakhar Zaman to end his dry run at the Twenty20 World Cup with an impactful knock in Thursday’s semi-final against Australia in Dubai. The 31-year-old Fakhar has failed to fire with the bat during the team’s unbeaten run in the Super 12 stage, scoring 54 runs from four innings. Former Australian opener …

ISLAMABAD: The ex-mill sugar price fell by nearly 29 per cent on Wednesday and officials in the finance ministry expressed the hope that the sweetener will see a considerable decline in the open market in a few days. The ex-mill price in Punjab dropped to Rs103 per kg and in Karachi to Rs105 from Rs145 per kg, Spokesperson to Adviser …

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan Governor Dr Reza Baqir has said that the Islamic finance industry needs to speed up digitisation of its services and transform processes to improve efficiency, reduce intermediation cost and increase outreach to a wider segment of society. Speaking at the 15th Islamic Finance Services Board (IFSB) Summit hosted by the Saudi Central Bank in Jeddah, …

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday issued details of Rs821 billion recoveries it made in cases of white collar crime since the bureau’s inception in 1999. The details were officially shared with the media in view of a controversy generated after the finance ministry announced on Nov 4 that it had only received Rs6.458bn out of the total …

ISLAMABAD: The Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Wednesday notified average sale price for Regasified-Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) for November at about $15.68 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) which is almost 105 per cent higher than the same month last year and a fraction lower than October this year. The notification showed that major increase was due to …