ADDIS ABABA: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and compared its actions to Adolf Hitler’s campaign to exterminate Jews. “What’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide,” Lula told reporters on Sunday in Addis Ababa where he was attending an African Union …

ISLAMABAD: PPP, on Sunday, firmly claimed that it was in a position to form its government in Balochistan as PML-N has assured its full support to the party in the province. “Some nationalist parties were raising hue and cry over their defeat in the polls, but despite all odds, the PPP will form government in Baloch­istan,” PPP leader Sarfaraz Bugti …

ISLAMABAD: Amid a growing controversy over the variance between forms 45 and 47 and allegations of massive rigging, an election watchdog has called for an independent audit of election results. The Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) has proposed a three-stage methodology for the audit of results of the recently held general elections. In a statement, it urged the Election …

Society faces a grave dilemma as it navigates the maze of hopelessness: suicide, a complex aspect of mental illness. When people struggle in the dark with invisible burdens, it is crucial to have a conversation that goes beyond sensationalism. Let’s aim to disentangle it and reveal the many strands that together form the complicated entirety of this problem. Suicide attempts …

LAHORE: PML-N sup­remo Nawaz Sharif after the Feb 8 polls is keeping a low profile but active in behind the scenes efforts for formation of federal and Punjab governments, Dawn learnt on Sunday. That the PML-N sup­remo is busy selecting cabinet members came as no surprise as a senior PML-N leader said that despite all odds the PML-N and PPP will form …

ISLAMABAD: The caretaker government is likely to make a fresh attempt to promulgate an ordinance amending the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) Act, 1992, aiming to limit irrigation-related operational decision-making powers of the inter-provincial water regulator and enhance the financial autonomy of its non-member chairman to impose charges, fees, or cess for hiring experts and consultants. Sources said that earlier …

PESHAWAR: The nominee of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf for the office of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, Ali Amin Gandapur, has said that he will get rights of the province with the support of other political parties. Talking to journalists after the maiden meeting of PTI parliamentary party here on Sunday, he said that maintaining law and order, getting constitutional rights of the …

Services of social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, remained disrupted for the third consecutive day in Pakistan on Monday. According to Downdetector, the outage was reported a little after 10:30am and persisted till noon. Services were restored around 12:24pm but were again disrupted after 1pm. Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources including users, showed …

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Monday again failed to appear before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in a case pertaining to missing Baloch students. As Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani resumed hearing a petition regarding the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, he observed, “The purpose of summoning the prime minister was to …

QUETTA: Balochistan remained cut off from the rest of the country on Sunday as all highways linking the province with Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were bloc­ked throughout the day. The wheel-jam strike call was given by the leaders of an alliance of four nationalist parties against the alle­ged rigging in the Feb 8 elections. According to reports, workers and …