ISLAMABAD: Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed said during the opening session of the ‘Pak-Afghan Stakeholders’ dialogue that opening borders and minds and delinking trade from politics is crucial to promoting mutually beneficial peace and connectivity. In the dialogue that convened in Islamabad on Wednesday, he also said that Pakistan needed to develop strategic clarity on relations with its neighbours and needed …

ISLAMABAD: After a delay of over 44 years, the Supreme Court finally corrected a historic wrong by accepting that the murder trial of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was unfair and lacked due process, both at the trial stage and in the endorsement of the verdict by the appellate court. “The proceedings of the trial by the Lahore High Court and …

RAWALPINDI: Stray bullets damaged a VVIP aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and two transport aircraft on Feb 24, the day Basant was celebrated, and in the first month of this year, respectively. The two transport aircraft damaged by the bullets have been rendered unusable. Besides, the main runway and taxiway were littered with a large number of bullets …

ISLAMABAD: Noting that the fairness of the 2024 general elections had declined from the previous two electoral exercises, the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) has called on the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the delays in the compilation and transmission of results that marred the credibility of the process. In …

ISLAMABAD: The under-representation of women journalists in newsrooms and lack of gender sensitive policies have forced the Pakistani media industry into a state of gender emergency, according to a gender audit of news organisations conducted by the Women Journalists Association of Pakistan (WJAP) and Freedom Network. The study ‘Unequal Newsrooms: A Gender Audit of Pakistani Media Organisations’ was launched in …

LAHORE / PESHAWAR: Newly elected members of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinets were sworn in on Wed­nesday. In Lahore, Punjab Go­­ver­­nor Balighur Rehman administered oath to the 18-member cabinet of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif. The cabinet has only two female members. The KP cabinet, comprising 15 ministers and five advisers, was administered the oath by Governor Haji Ghulam …

ISLAMABAD: The PTI leadership alleged on Wednesday that the Form-45s published by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on its website were heavily tampered, with the results being changed in favour of PTI’s rivals and voter turnout crossing 100 per cent at several polling stations. Addressing a press conference, PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan said that after the elections, one …

An Islamabad accountability court on Thursday suspended the perpetual arrest warrants issued against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s sons — Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz — till March 14 in the three corruption references related to the Panama Papers. Hussain and Hassan, through their counsel Qazi Misbahul Hassan, had filed an application in the court, seeking the suspension of the warrants issued against …

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday extended the bar on the oath-taking of the beneficiaries allotted National Assembly reserved seats until March 13. The order was issued on a petition filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) — which was joined by PTI-backed independents who won the elections sans their electoral symbol — challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to reject the …

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN, Munir Akram, has asked the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to urge the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan to terminate their relationship with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The TTP could “soon pose a global terrorist threat” if left unchecked, Ambassador Akram warned the UNSC on Wednesday while addressing a special Security Council session on Afghanistan. A …