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ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers in the National Assembly on Monday condemned the suicide blast at a political gathering in Bajaur , terming it a “complete failure” of Pakistan’s over two dozen intelligence agencies and an outcome of the “unclear Afghan policy” of successive governments. After having a brief debate on Sunday’s bombing at a JUI-F convention claiming over 50 lives, the lawmakers passed seven legislations, including the controversial bill seeking to amend the Pakistan Army Act 1952. Besides questioning the role of intelligence agencies in preventing terrorist attacks, they expressed concern over a surge in such incidents at a time when the country was about to enter the election phase. The members also questioned huge budgetary allocations for intelligence agencies in the wake of the Bajaur incident, stating that local administration had not been warned about any such attack. Minister calls for exposing those who held talks with TTP; outgoing NA passes seven more bills “If we ...

NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court came down hard on the Manipur police on Monday and demanded to see a complete break-up of the approximately 6,000 cases of murder, rape, arson, crimes against women, burning of villages, homes and places of worship the state government claimed to have registered during the ethnic clashes. A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chan­drachud, was hearing petitions by the two women who were paraded naked and raped. The bench observed it was surprised to find both the centre and the state groping for facts about crimes which are “public knowledge, reported widely in the national media”. The court set up hearings on Tuesday, and said it was shocked to know that the Manipur police took 14 whole days to register even a ‘Zero FIR’ (an FIR that can be filed in any police station) on the sexual assault and gang-rape of two women in Thoubal district on May 4, The Hindu said. While the video of the horrific visuals of the sexual violence...

KHARAN: This photo, provided by local authorities, shows an entire street of houses levelled by recent rains, flash floods. QUETTA: At least 11 people were killed and over 400 houses collapsed in different districts of Balochistan due to downpour and flash floods over the last one week. The province remained cut off with other areas of the country as heavy rains and flash floods triggered landslides and damaged bridges, blocking highways. Officials of the Provi­ncial Disaster Manage­ment Autho­rity (PDMA), Balochistan, said on Monday that Panjgur, Kharan and Washuk districts were badly affected areas as most houses in these areas were destr­oyed by heavy rains which continued falling in these areas for four days, cutting off a large number of villages’ links with district headquarters and rendering hundreds of families homeless. Officials said that dams in Panjgur, Washuk, Khar­an, Qila Saifullah, Pishin, Lasbela, Hub, Dera Bugti, Kohlu, Bark­han, Sibi and Bolan were filled up b...

SIDON: At least six people were killed on Sunday in clashes in south Lebanon’s restive Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp, said Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement and a source at the camp. The fighting between Fatah and Islamists in the camp, which erupted overnight, killed a Fatah military leader and four of his colleagues, the secularist movement said. A Palestinian source inside the camp, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an “Islamist from the Al Shabab Al Muslim group” was also killed and six others including the group’s leader were wounded. A journalist said clashes at Ain al-Helweh, the largest of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, were still ongoing on Sunday afternoon. Fatah in a statement confirmed the death of commander Ashraf al-Armouchi and four of his “comrades” during a “heinous operation”. The statement denounced an “abominable and cowardly crime” aimed at undermining the “security and stability” of the Pales­tinian camps in Leb...

BANYUMAS: Eight people trapped in an illegal gold mine on the Indonesian island of Java are feared dead, a local rescue official said on Sunday, as search efforts entered a fifth day with little progress. Unlicensed mines — many with disregard for basic safety measures — are common across the mineral-rich Southeast Asian archipelago and accidents are frequent. The workers were digging inside a hole with a depth of 200 feet in Pancurendang village in Central Java on Tuesday evening when water suddenly flooded the illegal mine. Rescuers had deployed water pumps around the clock and worked to dam a nearby river in a frantic bid to get the water out of the mining shaft but it remained flooded on Sunday. “This is already the fifth day. We expect the bad news that the victims have died,” local search and rescue agency head Adah Sudarsa told reporters on Sunday. Sudarsa said the rescue effort would continue until Tuesday in the hope of retrieving the miners’ bodies, which are yet to be fo...

SUKKUR: As many as 44 people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the July 21 invasion of Narch village, falling within the limits of the Sangi police station of Pannu Aqil, police said on Friday. The police and area residents said that around 170 people riding scores of motorcycles and many of them waving firearms had stormed their way into the village and opened fire killing two youths and kidnapping two women along with a young girl on the night of July 21. They claimed that the invaders belonged to the Mahar clan and lived in Raza Goth, situated within the gang-infested riverine area of Pannu Aqil. They targeted a particular house but several others also came under the attack during their indiscriminate firing, the villagers claimed. The village is dominated by Kalhoro tribesmen. The police said that a strong contingent of police equipped with sophisticated weapons had been raiding various places in and around Raza Goth since July 22 to apprehend the remaining sus...

LAHORE: In a bid to control the rising prices of sugar, the Punjab government promulgated an order late on Friday evening, authorising the cane commissioner and deputy commissioners to regulate trade of the commodity, from fixing the rate to storage, transport and distribution of the sweetener. The Punjab Foodstuffs (Sugar) Order, 2023 issued under Section 3 of the Punjab Foodstuffs (Control) Act, 1958 says that the cane commissioner may fix the ex-mill sugar price after giving a three-day notice to the representative body of sugar factories for hearing their point of view. The notice may be given electronically or digitally or otherwise and shall be deemed as final. Likewise, the DC of the concerned district may fix the retail price of the sweetener after hearing the representatives of traders as well as consumers. DCs empowered to fix retail trade after hearing traders and consumers The cane commissioner may prohibit withholding from sale of sugar and direct the occupier of th...

RAWALPINDI: Getting from Rawat to Kutchery Chowk has become a difficult task; it takes hours and commuters brave the difficult task of crossing the rough, pocked and bumpy road. Additionally, repair work on the Soan River Bridge, which was damaged on June 27, is still going on, making public transportation miserable. The road had recently been renamed as Potohar Avenue by the National Highway Authority (NHA). It connects many populated housing societies and its pathetic condition makes it difficult for the residents to commute especially since the bridge has been closed for repair work. Residents of the housing societies, who travel between Rawat and Kutchery on daily basis, seem helpless in getting authorities concerned realise and remove sewage accumulated on its uneven portion near Fauji Foundation Hospital, Al Shifa Eye Trust Hospital and the NLC establishments. During rains, the newly-constructed bridge over Soan River close to Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench building (tow...

Barcelona beat Real Madrid 3-0 in a fiercely contested friendly match on Saturday with an early strike from Ousmane Dembele and late goals from Fermin Lopez and Ferran Torres. The result was harsh on Carlo Ancelotti’s team, who struck the woodwork five times and created plenty of opportunities. But Spanish champions Barcelona’s more clinical finishing proved to be the difference. A packed AT&T Stadium, home of the NFL’S Dallas Cowboys, witnessed a game which had all the passion and commitment of a real derby despite being a pre-season warm-up. The crowd were soon on their feet when Oriel Romeu rattled the Real cross-bar with a thundering drive in the fourth minute but Barca soon had their fans celebrating. A cleverly worked free-kick saw Pedri slide a diagonal pass into the path of Dembele, who expertly drilled the ball into the far corner. Real had a great chance to get level just five minutes later when Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo handled in the box but Vinicius Ju...

PTI leader Asad Qaiser on Saturday called for an end to what he called was ongoing “propaganda” against his party, and urged for “powerful quarters” to ensure free and fair elections in the country. In a video statement, Qaiser, who unlike many of his peers did not leave the PTI in the aftermath of the May 9 violence, said: “The one-sided propaganda under way against the party and Imran Khan at this time, what do those in power and the PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) group think? Do they think they can eliminate the PTI through such propaganda? “It is their misunderstanding. The more negative propaganda they are doing, the more the PTI is becoming popular,” he said as he criticised the incumbent government’s performance and questioned whether it had managed to tackle inflation and improved governance during its tenure. “Show us one sector in which we can say the PDM has shown [good] performance. These 14 months were the worst disaster that is why I want to say to the powerful sec...

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has urged the UN Security Council to “fully and forcefully” implement its resolutions on the Middle East conflict that give the right of self-determination to Palestinian people. Addressing a meeting of the 15-member UNSC on Thursday, Ambassador Munir Akram strongly condemned the recent large-scale Israeli military’s operations in Jenin in the Occupied West Bank, and called for holding Israel accountable for its grave human rights violations and crimes in Occupied Palestine. “Unfortunately,” he said, “the killing of children, women, and men continues in Occupied Palestine with complete impunity. The rule of law can be upheld only if it is applied universally and consistently, without exceptions or double standards.” The envoy regretted that Security Council had not been able to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in Occupied Palestine. Asks UNSC to fully implement resolutions on self-determination rig...

WASHINGTON: Former US president Donald Trump said on Friday he would not end his run for the White House if he were convicted and sentenced in any of the criminal investigations mounting against him. The 77-year-old Republican frontrunner was asked about his reaction to the federal and state charges he faces as he bids for a second term in 2024, a day after federal prosecutors added three felony counts to the indictment against him over his handling of classified documents. Asked by radio host John Fredericks if being sentenced would stop his campaign, he quickly responded: “Not at all. There’s nothing in the Constitution to say that it could. And even the radical left crazies are saying not at all, that wouldn’t stop (me) — and it wouldn’t stop me either. These people are sick. What they are doing is absolutely horrible.” Trump said previous presidents including Barack Obama and George W. Bush “took documents”, suggesting falsely that his predecessors had engaged in conduct similar...

PTI leader Asad Umar challenged former chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Shabbar Zaidi on Friday over his claims of the previous PTI government nearing default during Umar’s term as the finance minister. Umar was responding to an interview of Zaidi on Geo News programme ‘ Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath ’, in which the former FBR chairman said that he had warned former premier Imran Khan about his government nearing default in an April 2019 meeting. Zaidi said that subsequent to his alert, Imran had called Umar to confirm if it was true to which the then-finance minister said: “Yes it’s right.” Zaidi claimed the PTI chief had then asked Umar why he had not informed him about the possible default, to which Umar had said: “Sir, I believed you knew.” The former FBR chairman said Umar was removed as the finance minister shortly after this exchange. Contesting his claims before the complete show was aired, Umar asked Zaidi from where he had concocted the story about the...

Leaders of a coup in Niger declared General Abdourahamane Tiani as the new head of state on Friday days after saying they had ousted President Mohamed Bazoum in the seventh military takeover in West and Central Africa in less than three years. The upheaval has raised concerns about the security of a region where Niger has been a key ally of Western powers seeking to contain insurgencies by groups linked to Al Qaeda and the militant Islamic State. Tiani was the head of the presidential guard whose soldiers shut Bazoum inside his palace on Wednesday, leaving confusion over who was in control. The general appeared on state television on Friday with a banner on the screen that described himself as the president of a newly formed military body, the National Council for Safeguarding the Homeland (CNSP). “The President of the CNSP is the head of state,” an officer said, reading out a statement. The constitution has been suspended, all government institutions dissolved and the CNSP will e...

KARACHI: The central bank’s foreign exchange reserves shrank by over half a billion dollars during the week ended on July 21, primarily due to external debt repayments, the bank said on Thursday. State Bank’s reserves fell by $541 million to $8.186 billion by the close of the week. The total foreign reserves held by the country stood at $13.534bn, including $5.348bn held by commercial banks. The central bank’s reserves increased at the beginning of the new fiscal year in July after support from the International Monetary Fund, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The reserves rose to $8.7bn after fresh inflows. Pakistan’s external debt servicing would be around $25bn this year, which can affect the balance of payments. The current account deficit has significantly dropped to $2.5bn in the previous fiscal year from $17.5bn a year ago, mainly due to a large cut in the import bill. However, after a short-term agreement with the IMF, the government has eased the imports, which ca...

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will likely raise its key interest rate again on Monday to tackle persistently high inflation, giving in to pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), analysts said. Pakistan must continue its monetary tightening cycle, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a staff report earlier in July, a week after the lender approved a new bailout arrangement with the South Asian nation which helped it avert a debt default. Nine out of 16 analysts predicted the State Bank of Pakistan will raise the key rate by 100 basis points (bps) to 23 per cent at its policy meeting next week, while one saw a smaller 50bps increase and six expected no change. The central bank has raised its key policy rate by 12.25 percentage points since April 2022, mainly to curb soaring inflation. SBP held rates steady in June saying inflation had peaked at 38pc in the preceding month. But before the end of the month, it raised rates by 100bps at an emergency me...

KHARAN: This photo, provided by the district administration, shows a row of mud houses destroyed in the downpour. • ‘Worst’ floods feared in Ravi, Sutlej • Met Office predicts ‘vigorous’ three-day spell, warns of urban flooding PESHAWAR / QUETTA / LAHORE: At least 10 people were killed in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday as monsoon rains wreaked havoc, triggering flash floods in hilly areas, inundating urban localities, and destroying mud houses across the country. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Meteorological Department issued a red alert for the next three days, saying that a “vigorous monsoon activity” was likely in upper and central parts of the country till July 30, which would lead to flooding and landslides. Similarly, authorities braced for the ‘worst’ floods in Ravi and Sutlej since 1998 after the catchment areas in India received incessant rainfall during the ongoing monsoon season, filling three dams on these rivers much earlier than expected. Five dead in KP...

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday told African leaders he would gift them tens of thousands of tonnes of grain within months despite Western sanctions, which he said made it harder for Moscow to export its grain and fertilisers. Speaking at a two-day summit in St Petersburg devoted to Russian-African ties, Mr Putin said Russia was expecting a record grain harvest and was ready to replace Ukrainian grain exports to Africa on both a commercial and aid basis to honour what he said was Moscow’s critical role in global food security. “We will be ready to provide Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea with 25-50,000 tonnes of free grain each in the next 3-4 months,” Mr Putin told the summit, whose participants applauded. “We will also provide free delivery of these products to consumers.” Calls Western sanctions hurdle to supply of free fertiliser to poor nations; AU chair Assoumani urges Russia-Ukraine ‘peaceful co-existence’ La...

LAHORE: A special court on Wednesday took exception to the shifting of former chief minister Parvez Elahi from Lahore to Rawalpindi jail without its permission and issued show cause notices to the Punjab secretary for home, the inspectors general of the police and the prisons. Judge Bakht Fakhar Behzad also imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on each officer in addition to an order for the attachment of their salaries. At the outset of a money laundering case against Mr Elahi, the judge asked the police and the jail officials about the absence of the suspect, who is on judicial remand. DIG Operations Ali Nasir Rizvi told the court that Mr Elahi had been shifted to Adiala jail following his detention order issued under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO). He said a police team reached Adiala jail to bring Elahi to Lahore for the court’s appearance, but the superintendent of the jail refused to hand over his custody due to the detention orders. Ex-CM’s ‘illegal’ shifting from Lahore to Adi...

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has decided to form a high-powered committee, comprising three vice chancellors and officers from security agencies, to investigate the Islamia University Bahawalpur (IUB) scandal. HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Federal Education on Wednesday that the education sector was suffering because of the scandal at the varsity. He said that even international media was raising this issue and added a high-powered committee was being notified to investigate the matter while a special audit and performance audit of the IUB would be conducted in the near future. “Today, we will notify this high-powered committee, which will stay in the university for some days to complete the probe,” he said and added that there were 253 universities (both public and private) in the country and because of this issue, students were upset. “This is unacceptable,” he said and added that universities had policies relat...

Pakistan on Wednesday condemned the “provocative remarks” made by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh “boasting readiness to cross the Line of Control (LoC)” and counselled India to “exercise utmost caution”. Earlier today, The Times of India reported that while addressing a Kargil War Memorial in Ladakh, Singh said: “India is a peace-loving nation which believes in its centuries-old values and is committed towards international laws, but to safeguard our interests, we will not hesitate in crossing the LoC.” He further said that India would go to any “extreme” to maintain its honour and dignity, “if that includes crossing the LoC, we are ready to do that. If we are provoked and if the need arises, we will cross the LoC.” Condemning Singh’s remarks in a press release issued later in the day, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said India’s “belligerent rhetoric is a threat to the regional peace and stability and contributes to destabilising the strategic environm...

KARACHI: Bank advances to the private sector plunged by almost 87 per cent to Rs211 billion in FY23 against Rs1,612bn in the preceding fiscal year, reflecting the repercussion of record high interest rates and economic slowdown. The State Bank’s latest data issued on Tuesday revealed that the private sector did not borrow to invest in expansion as most of the borrowing was meant for short-term working capital. The entire fiscal year was marred with political and economic instability as a result the PMLN-led coalition government had to sharply trim its growth projection to a mere 0.29pc from the budgetary target of over 6pc for FY23. The conventional banks provided Rs171bn to the private sector in FY23 compared to Rs971bn in FY22. Advances by Islamic banks to the private sector also dipped to Rs126bn against Rs239bn in the preceding fiscal year. The Islamic branches of the conventional banks recorded a net debt repayment of Rs86bn against a borrowing of Rs401bn in 2021-22. Financia...

LAHORE: The Lahore General Hospital management shifted 15-year-old girl [victim of domestic violence] to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) following her deteriorating health condition. It has also formed a 12-member medical board of senior medics from various specialties for treatment of Rizwana. The duty doctors said the condition of Rizwana got serious due to malnutrition and the complications of her wounds in her brain and on the face. Resident of Sargodha, the girl was shifted to the LGH on Monday in the domestic violence matter when her employers - a civil judge in Islamabad and his wife - were accused of torturing her. LGH chief executive Prof Dr Muhammad Al-Fareed Zafar told Dawn that the girl was shifted to the ICU keeping in view her condition. LGH management forms 12-member board to treat the teen He said according to the medical examination so far, Rizwana was bearing some four to six month old wounds/bruises on her head and face. During medical examination, the doctor...

Senators from allies in the ruling coalition and the opposition PTI on Tuesday opposed a proposed amendment to Section 230 of the Election Act 2017, which relates to the functions of a caretaker government. The PML-N on Sunday announced that an amendment was being introduced to empower the interim setup to have powers similar to that of an elected government. These powers would allow the caretakers to take important decisions. “The interim setup will not be confined to day-to-day affairs of the government till elections are held. An amendment is being brought (to the Constitution) to empower the caretaker setup to take important decisions like an elected government does,” PML-N supreme leader’s spokesperson Muhammad Zubair earlier told Dawn . The amendment is among several others being proposed to the elections laws ahead of polls scheduled to take place later this year. The amendments were debated on in a joint Parliament session today. Speaking on the matter, PPP Senator Raz...

Bronny James, the eldest son of NBA superstar LeBron James, is in stable condition after suffering a cardiac arrest during practice with his college basketball team, the James family said on Tuesday. Bronny James, 18, collapsed on court while training with his University of Southern California team-mates on Monday in Los Angeles. “Yesterday while practicing Bronny James suffered a cardiac arrest,” a spokesperson for the James family said in a statement to AFP . “Medical staff was able to treat Bronny and take him to the hospital. He is now in stable condition and no longer in ICU. “We ask for respect and privacy for the James family and we will update media when there is more information. “LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to the USC medical and athletic staff for their incredible work and dedication to the safety of their athletes.” The TMZ.com celebrity news website reported that James was unconscious before being rushed to hospita...

Anjem Choudary LONDON: British Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary was remanded in custody by a magistrate on Monday, after London’s Metropolitan police charged him with three terrorism offences. Choudary, 56, faces charges of belonging to a proscribed organisation, addressing meetings to encourage support for a proscribed organisation and directing a terrorist organisation, the force said. A 28-year-old Canadian, Khaled Hussein, was also ordered held in custody after he was charged with membership of a proscribed organisation. Both appeared separately at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, which heard that the charges relate to “an extreme form of Islam”. Anjem accused of encouraging support for proscribed organisation “The charges relate to the proscribed organisation Al Muhajiroun, also known as the Islamic Thinkers Society,” prosecutor Nick Price said. “Criminal proceedings against Mr Choudary and Mr Hussein are now active and they each have the right to a fair trial,”...

PROCEEDINGS of both houses of Indian parliament were adjourned on Monday after a ruckus over violence in the north-eastern state of Manipur, Indian media reported. Opposition members in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha demanded a debate on the issue and disrupted proceedings by shouting slogans and holding placards, BBC News reported . Home Minister Amit Shah said the government was ready for a discussion but opposition members in the lower house, Lok Sabha, called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the lower house, according to India Today . As the day ended in a stalemate, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to key opposition leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s T. R. Baalu at night, the Indian Express said . Amit Shah says govt ready for debate on wave of violence in the north-eastern state In Rajya Sabha, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar suspended Aam Aadmi Party’s Sanjay Sing...