LAHORE: With the Paris Olympics just around the corner, Pakistan’s fastest female sprinter Faiqa Riaz is facing a crucial dilemma in her training. Despite receiving a wild card entry, Faiqa is currently training in Islamabad without her coach Fayyaz Ahmad, whom she credits for her success. “The time is running short, and I need my coach, Sir Fayyaz, on an …

PARIS: Rafael Nadal’s illustrious French Open career came to a likely end with his first ever defeat in the opening round by Alexander Zverev on Monday, after Iga Swiatek made a winning start in her bid for a fourth title. Nadal matched world number four Zverev for long periods on a packed Court Philippe Chatrier, but slipped to a 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), …

CARDIFF: To go into the T20 World Cup with their confidence sky high, Pakistan will need to ensure they end up on the winning side in the third Twenty20 International against England on Tuesday. After their 23-run defeat in the preceding game on Saturday — which followed the abandonment of the opening fixture of the series due to rain — a victory …

Skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will look to end India’s global title drought as the star duo step out for what is likely to be their final World Cup appearance. Rohit, 37, and Kohli, 35, have long been the twin torchbearers for the hopes of their cricket-mad nation, which last saw a major title triumph in the 2013 Champions …

England captain Jos Buttler will miss their third T20 International against Pakistan for the birth of his third child, the team said ahead of Tuesday’s match in Cardiff. Buttler has returned home to be with his wife after leading England to a 23-run win at Edgbaston on Saturday, which gave them a 1-0 lead in the four-match series following the …

KARACHI: Pakistani shares experienced selling pressure on Monday as uncertainty surrounding the upcoming budgetary meas­ures caused the benchmark KSE 100 index to turn red despite an initially positive start amid low volume. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the market turned bearish on reports that the huge Rs12.5 trillion proposed tax collection target for FY25 would impact industrial earnings. He …

PESHAWAR: Opposition members in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday rejected the provincial government’s budget for the next fiscal year as “unrealistic, based on presumptions, and without resource allocations.” During the session chaired by Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, the opposition members said it was a political stunt on part of the provincial government to present its budget before the federal government announced …

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal has put his weight behind the formal domestic packaged fruit juice industry, assuring the manufacturers that he would push for the abolition of 20pc federal excise duty (FED) on its products in the upcoming budget. The excise tax has resulted in a 41pc drop in the sale volumes of packaged …

ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has approved a scheme of arrangements for the merger of Intermarket Securities Ltd (IMS) with EFG Hermes Pakistan Ltd (EFG). IMS is a publicly unlisted company that provides brokerage services. At the same time, EFG is a publicly listed company that offers brokerage services in stocks and financial brokerage, corporate finance, and financial …