KARACHI: Despite facing ‘threats and resistance’ from the provincial administration and recent killings of its workers, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of boycotting the Feb 8 elections and warned that any attempt to ‘snatch’ the mandate of Karachi through ‘vandalism and power’ would attract a serious reaction. The top leadership of the party was …

KARACHI: A crackdown on leaders and activists of the Pakistan Tehree-i-Insaf (PTI) intensified on Wednesday as police picked up over three dozen more workers of the beleaguered party for their alleged involvement in violence during a rally at Teen Talwar over the weekend. “Thirty-nine more persons have been apprehended on charges of rioting, attacking policeman and ransacking official vehicles,” said …

RAWALPINDI: After the special court set up under the Official Secrets Act sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to 10 years imprisonment for the breach of state secrets, the status of the two political leaders has been changed from under-trial “accused” to prisoners. According to a senior official, the two PTI leaders will be treated as …

QUETTA: Security forces completed the clearance operation on Wednesday in Mach and other areas of Kachhi district, killing nearly a dozen terrorists and arresting their three accomplices who were injured during the gun battles. The Quetta-Sukkur national highway, which remained closed for three days, was reopened on Wednesday. Due to the highway closure, hundreds of trucks, passenger coaches and other vehicles remained …

A person was killed while five others, including a cop, sustained injuries in multiple attacks across Balochistan on Thursday, police said. The incidents came hours before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was scheduled to hold a high-level meeting to discuss the deteriorating law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balo­chistan in the lead-up to the Feb 8 elections. In Quetta, …

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear federal government’s intra-court appeal (ICA) challenging the court’s 2023 decision in the Afiya Shehrbano Zia case, which held that judges who retire or resign do not fall within the ambit of Article 209 of the Constitution that determines misconduct of superior court judges. However, the court attached a caveat to satisfy it on …

ISLAMABAD: The unprecedented surge in the number of voters has made Pakistan fifth largest democracy in the world trailing India, Indonesia, United States of America and Brazil. This is also the first time that Pakistan registered more women voters as compared to men in-between two elections. This was disclosed by a Fafen Report, titled “Electoral Rolls, General Election 2024” released …

LAHORE: PML-N President Sheh­baz Sharif has taken a U-turn on his earlier claim that he had been a “darling of the military establishment” for the last 30 years. “Had I been close to the establishment, I wouldn’t have gone to jail and been kept in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) dungeon [in the past],” Mr Shehbaz said in response to a question …

ISLAMABAD: Just before a PTI’s general body meeting on Wednesday, police and security officials in plainclothes allegedly raided and took control of PTI’s central secretariat in Islamabad’s Sector G-8, stopped members from entering the premises, warning them that they would have to face consequences, party sources said. The PTI general body, however, managed to hold a virtual meeting in which …

The beginning of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s romance has been made public. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end claims that when she came to his game on September 24, 2023, against the Chicago Bears, the two had already been getting to know one another for a few weeks. Kelce, 34, said, “We had known each other for close to …