Pakistani shooter Kishmala Talat on Monday qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics after bagging a silver medal at the Asian Shooting Championship. Talat ranked second in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol event with a remarkable score of 236.6 points at the Asian Shooting Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia. India’s Esha Singh clinched gold with 243.1 points, while her teammate Rhythm Sangwan claimed bronze …

LAHORE: After being stripped off his Test vice-captaincy following Pakistan’s dismal exit from the World Cup, wicket-keeper Moham­mad Rizwan was handed over the position for the Twenty20 International format on Monday. Rizwan’s first assignment in the role will be of deputising newly-appoin­ted captain Shaheen Shah Afridi in Pakistan’s upco­ming five-match T20 series against New Zealand. “It is an honour to …

JOHANNESBURG: South African wicket-keeper/batter Heinrich Klaasen has retired from red-ball cricket despite the country’s Test coach Shukri Conrad suggesting he would form part of his plans in 2024. Klaasen has become a mainstay of the South African white-ball side, with his record-breaking 174 against Australia in a ODI in September. He played four Tests between 2019 and 2023, managing 108 …

KARACHI: As Pakistani exporters continue cashing in on the situation that emerged after the Indian ban on onion exports, local consumers are taking the hit of an improvement in foreign exchange earnings by paying up to Rs240 per kg for the commodity in the domestic markets. When India imposed a ban on Dec 8, 2023 till March 2024, local rates …

LAHORE: Former Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur and his support staff have decided to part ways with the country’s cricket board nearly two months after they were unceremoniously removed from their respective posts following the national side’s dismal World Cup campaign. Arthur, former head coach Grant Bradburn and ex batting coach Andrew Puttick were asked to report at the National …

ISLAMABAD: The caretaker government plans to get going Pakistan Development Fund Ltd (PDFL) — a $1.5 billion state-owned shell entity — to provide an alternative financing source to public sector development projects through divestment of government stakes in public sector and public-private partnerships (PPP). The entity was created in June 2014 with inflows of $1.5bn financial support from Saudi Arabia …

Pakistan on Monday “categorically rejected” its designation as a “Country of Particular Concern (CPC)” by the US State Department under the International Religious Freedom Act. On January 4, a press release from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on religious freedom designations categorised Pakistan, along with China, Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, as a CPC …

ISLAMABAD: Embattled PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan made a surprising claim, saying that an essay recently published by The Economist under his name was actually “AI-generated”. Mr Khan made the claim while talking to journalists allowed to cover proceedings inside the prison after attending two trials — one regarding a £190 million corruption case and the Toshakhana reference — at the Adiala Jail, on Monday. …

NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court on Monday cancelled the premature release of 11 convicted rapists of Bilkis Bano, saying the Gujarat government does not have the power to grant them liberty. The court has asked the convicts to surrender back to prison within two weeks. The Gujarat government under the same Bharatiya Janata Party that was in power during the riots …