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QUETTA: At least eight people died and over a dozen received injuries after torrential rains followed by hailstorms hit different parts of Balochistan during the past 24 hours, officials said on Sunday. Lasbela, Khuzdar, Musa­khel and Naseerabad, Qila Saifullah and Harnai were the most affected areas due to heavy rainfall, prompting the Pro­vincial Disaster Manage­ment Aut­hority (PDMA) and local administration to launch a rescue operation in the region to provide relief to people, they added. Initial reports suggested that the torrential rains also caused heavy losses of property and livestock. The PDMA, while confirming the loss of lives and livestock, said that relief activities have been launched in the calamity-hit areas. “The affected population is being shifted to safer places by rescue teams,” the officials said, confirming that deaths had occurred in Khuz­dar, Lasbela, Qila Saif­ullah, Kohlu, and Chaman. It may be noted that a fresh spell of torrential rains has started on...

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has offered 25 acres to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the construction of a cricket stadium in Islamabad. Recently, the CDA approached the PCB with the offer of 25 acres near D-12. “I have spoken to PCB high-ups a few days ago and informed them that CDA has earmarked 25 acres for the project. Next week, CDA and PCB are going to hold a meeting on it,” CDA Chairman Noorul Amin Mengal told Dawn on Sunday. He said the CDA had 150 acres near D-12 and Shah Allah Ditta which will be utilised for promotion of sports. “Out of the total, 25 acres will be given to the PCB for the cricket stadium and we will develop other sports facilities on the remaining land,” he said and added that the cricket stadium in the foothills of Margallas will add to the beauty of Islamabad. The facility will also be used for international cricket matches. Project to construct stadium in Shakarparian was scrapped by Supreme Court in 2018 Asked about possibl...

FAR from easing, Pakistan’s Afghan dilemma has become more acute in recent months. Despite several high-level interactions with Kabul aimed at securing its cooperation to contain the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which resides in Afghanistan, little headway seems to have been made. This is evident from the continuing surge in attacks in Pakistan conducted by TTP from their safe havens in Afghanistan. This was confirmed most recently by the Ministry of Defence report submitted to the Supreme Court, which argued that the internal security situation wasn’t conducive to holding provincial elections in May. Although the report was not made public, news reports cited it as maintaining that the terrorist threat had increased because the environment in Afghanistan worsened after the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. It also said that with Kabul unwilling to act against TTP, its regrouping in Afghanistan posed a greater threat to Pakistan. Islamabad’s growing frustration was ref...

MUZAFFARABAD: Authorities in India-held Kashmir on Sunday repatriated a man and his son to Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), a day after the duo had inadvertently crossed the Line of Control (LoC) from Abbaspur sector of Poonch division, officials said. Abdul Hameed, 55, and his son Abbas, 34, were watering their cattle at a water channel close to their Polas Kakuta village at about 1:30pm on Saturday when they reportedly strayed into the territory under Indian occupation and were taken into custody by the Indian soldiers. Fellow villager Muhammad Hussain, 60, who was behind them saw this happening and reported it to the Pakistan army personnel stationed in the rear, an administration official told Dawn from the area by telephone. According to him, the army contacted their counterparts across the divide for repatriation of the inadvertent crossers, following which the duo was returned by the Indian authorities via Tetrinote-Chakan Da Bagh crossing point on Sunday evening. Assistant co...

WASHINGTON: Classified documents — released recently by a US airman — show that Pakistan, and some other nations, have been quietly distancing themselves from the United States on key issues like Ukraine. The documents, published by The Washington Post and other US media outlets, include two Pakistani memos warning policymakers not to annoy China to maintain links with the United States. In one of the memos, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar argues that Pakistan can “no longer try to maintain a middle ground between China and the United States.” The internal memo was sent to official recipients in Pakistan in March. Titled “Pakistan’s Difficult Choices”, the memo cautions Islamabad should avoid giving the appearance of appeasing the West. It warns that the instinct to preserve Pakistan’s partnership with the United States would ultimately sacrifice the full benefits of the country’s “real strategic” partnership with China. Leaked memos featuring PM Shehbaz,...

KARACHI: The ongoing census faces a fresh controversy as both the federal and Sindh governments went public with their differences over the issue on Sunday. The PPP-led Sindh government expressed concerns for excluding those parts of the province where “population growth rate has been recorded higher than a certain benchmark” and warned that the province would reject the result if its reservations were not addressed. The Sindh government’s concern came soon after Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal directed all the provincial governments to complete the field verification/coverage of the population and housing census till May 15 in “areas where population growth is not in line with normal demographic trends” and “close the field operation in all areas exhibiting natural trends”. On the other hand, both a federal government ally and the opposition PTI expressed their reservations over the census results. Murad says result won’t be accepted if reservations not addressed In a strongly-wo...

LAHORE: Former prime minister and PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi says all the political parties in the current government have failed to give a better and competent cabinet. “We could not form a 10-member competent people’s cabinet to run the affairs of the country smoothly,” he lamented and added that the people who did not have any ability were made ministers in the cabinet. Abbasi said the institutions were not working within their constitutional limits and all the systems of the country had failed due to failure of the leadership. He bemoaned the lack of vision in the leadership to bring about changes to the system to solve problems of the country facing existential crisis. The former prime minister was addressing a seminar on ‘Reimagining Pakistan’ at the Government College University (GCU) on Saturday. The seminar was a part of ‘The Great Debate 2023’ to discuss the problems of the country and their solutions. Former federal finance minister and PML-N leader Miftah Ismail ...

KARACHI: Four armed robbers looted several people sitting at a roadside eatery in the Dhoraji area on Friday night, police said on Saturday. A video went viral on social media showing unknown persons snatching cell phones from people at gunpoint. Confirming the incident, East-SSP Zubair Nazeer Sheikh told Dawn on Saturday that the police with the help of CCTV footage got some clues about the suspects. A police patrol indicated some motorcyclists to stop on Haider Ali Road and in an ensuing exchange of firing arrested Mohsin alias Kaptan and Tauseef Reh­man in injured condition. One motorbike and seven snatched cell phones were recovered from their custody. During initial probe, the injured disclosed that they were involved in the robbery at the Dhoraji eatery, the SSP said. Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2023 from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/mofykKJ

HONG KONG: China is mulling to allow single women access to in-vitro fertility (IVF) treatment legally in a private clinic as it tries to slow its demographic decline. The changes mean unmarried women can take paid maternity leave and receive child subsidies previously only available to married couples. This has benefited women like Chen Luojin, a 33-year-old divorcee living in Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern Sichuan province, which legalised registration of children by unmarried women in February, something China is considering implementing nationwide to address record low birth rates. She is now 10 weeks pregnant. “Becoming a single parent is not for everyone, but I’m happy with the decision,” said Chen. Some provinces have already legalised registration of children by unmarried females “Equally, getting married or not is for each individual to decide. We have liberalised the policies here and I know a lot of single women are doing IVF.” Concerned about China’s first...

ISLAMABAD: Another group of 97 Pakistani nat­io­nals evacuated from Sudan arrived in Karachi on Saturday as people continue to flee the war-torn country which the UN chief said “is falling apart”. This brought the total number of evacuated Pak­is­tanis to 357, as 260 lan­ded in Karachi a day ago . The group was flown from Jeddah to the Jinnah International Airport via a C-130 aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force. The government of Pakistan will continue to facilitate the safe return of stranded Pakistanis, the Foreign Office spokesperson said. According to a PAF press release, as per the direction of Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu, PAF’s transport aircraft successfully carried out evacuation missions “with complete professionalism and determination” to bring their Pakistani brothers and sisters to safety immediately. ‘Sudan falling apart’ As war continued to ravage the country, UN chief Antonio Guterres threw his support behind mediation efforts. “My appeal is for...

QUETTA: Amid the ongoing tussle between the executive and the judiciary , leaders of the legal fraternity have advised all institutions to work within their constitutional limits and asked lawyers to stand by the Consti­tution and not any particular class. They said that being the superior judiciary, the Supreme Court needs a lot of caution and as an institution, it should not become weak. Addressing the National Lawyers Convention organised by the Balochistan Bar Council (BBC) at the Balochistan High Court here on Saturday, they expressed concern over political and constitutional crises in the country and said the democratic system today is in danger and the judiciary is working as a “tool for undemocratic powers”. “Therefore, it is important that lawyers play a strong and stable role and move forward in the national interest. It has been an honour that the lawyers of Balochistan have taken the initiative, be it constitutional crisis, martial law or the supremacy of parliament in t...

KARACHI: Four air travellers suspected of having monkeypox (mpox) tested negative for the disease on Friday. Officials sources told Dawn that the passengers, two of them hailing from Somalia and as many Pakistani deportees, had arrived in Karachi from Dubai on Thursday on different flights. “None of them tested positive. The teenager accompanied by his father was travelling to Pakistan for repair of a congenital disease,” shared an official. The suspected patients had been quarantined at a government health facility in Bhittaiabad in Gulistan-i-Jauhar and their samples were analysed at the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS). Meanwhile, the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) has sent a sample of a seven-year-old child suspected of having mpox disease to DUHS. A resident of Lyari, the child is stated to be a liver disease patient. He had been under treatment at the Indus Hospital for over six months from where he was recently referred to the NICH. “Though it seems to ...

KARACHI: The Asian Development Bank has said that the Malir Expressway project has been taken off the priority lists for funding through ADB resources. In a letter to Indigenous Legal Rights Alliance (ILRA), a group of people affected by the project, the ADB said that the project was not eligible for consideration under the ADB Accountability Mechanism. “Over the objection of the indigenous people of Malir, ADB rejected the Malir Expressway on environmental grounds,” stated Hafeez Baloch while sharing a copy of the ADB letter on Twitter. However, Sindh government spokesperson and Chief Minister’s Law Adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab told Dawn that the Malir Expressway was a public-private partnership (PPP) project and was not financed by the ADB. Project taken off funding list on complaint of two Malir residents; Murtaza Wahab says public-private partnership project is not ADB-supported The ILRA had lodged a complaint with the ADP about the adverse environmental impact of t...

ISLAMABAD: Just a few weeks after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council had filed a complaint against a sitting judge of the top court before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), the Sindh Bar Council also jumped into the fray on Friday by requesting the SJC to initiate an inquiry into the allegation of his misconduct. The SBC alleged that Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi’s conduct not only injured the Supreme Court’s dignity but also tarnished its reputation. The complainant believed the alleged violation of the code of conduct was sufficient to justify removal of the judge from office. Nearly half a dozen complaints have been filed over the past few months against the SC judge. Besides Sindh and KP bar councils, Pakistan Bar Council, a Lahore-based social media influencer Advocate Mian Dawood, PML-N Lawyers’ Forum and a private citizen Ghulam Murtaza Khan have moved misconduct and assets beyond means complaints against the Justice Naqvi who was elevated to the Supreme Court in Mar...

RAWALPINDI: After overseeing Pakistan’s 500th victory in the One-day International format on Thursday, captain Babar Azam lavished praise on the way his side controlled the game to draw first blood in the five-match series against New Zealand. With their five-wicket triumph over the Black Caps at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, Pakistan became only the third cricketing nation to reach the landmark. It came in their 949th one-dayer, making them the second quickest after Australia to achieve the feat. In the second ODI, also at in Rawalpindi, on Saturday, the hosts will look to build on that victory to further embellish their lead in the series but they will be mindful of the fact that New Zealand came back from 2-0 down to level the preceding five-game Twenty20 series 2-2. Pressing home their advantage, therefore, will be crucial for Pakistan. They can’t afford to give the visitors any chance, any opening. In Thursday’s game, they did exactly that with opener Fakhar Zaman’s ninth ODI hun...

ISLAMABAD: To address concerns over the exercise of digital census, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) after a detailed briefing to ministers, lawmakers and leaders of political parties on Friday decided in principle to extend digital census for another 15 days. PBS spokesperson Sarwar Gondal told Dawn the digital census, previously scheduled to conclude on April 30, would be extended till May 15. To work out an operation plan during the extended days, he said, the bureau would hold a meeting with chief secretaries on Saturday (today). “We will present the request of the political parties in a meeting of census monitoring committee,” he added. Need for the extension was felt after it emerged during the exercise that Karachi and Lahore populations showed little increase since the 2017 census. PBS asks political parties to identify areas not covered by enumeration teams The PBS at the briefing requested political parties to identify the areas that had not been covered by cen...

Writing about Fes isn’t easy; where do you begin and end when it comes to a city that dates back to the 9th century with vast literature already available on it — one that isn’t a stranger to tourists or travel guides, and was once considered the epicentre of Islamic civilisation. Why I’m writing this, however, is simple: to make everyone with an itch to travel to go to Fes — a time capsule functioning as a modern city — at least once. A view of Fes el Bali from the Marinid ruins. — Photo by author Most travel guides say one to two days are enough for Fes, once referred to as the Athens of Africa and still considered the cultural and spiritual capital of Morocco. I would recommend at least three to four days if your itinerary allows. Morocco planning 101 : Applying for Morocco’s visa from Pakistan is a smooth process (see this link ). For currency, Euro is ideal, followed by US dollar and British Pound, and the destination itself is still relatively economical with our plunging ...

PESHAWAR: Journalists and social media activists staged a protest in Bannu on Thursday against the failure of police to register an FIR and arrest the suspects involved in alleged kidnapping and torturing of journalist Gohar Wazir over a week ago. He filed a written complaint with Bannu City police station after he was set free by the captors and he received medical treatment at a local hospital on April 21. However, the complaint has not been converted into proper FIR so far. Gohar Wazir, who is president of National Press Club Bannu and works with a Pashto private television channel, has claimed that he was given electric shocks by his captors during a round 30-hour illegal confinement at an unspecified location. The protesters included local journalists and social media persons, who were holding placards and banners inscribed with different slogans and demands. They passed through different bazaars and said that the culprits should be arrested at the earliest. Protesters demand...