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ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Mohammad Sami Saeed has reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan while highlighting the importance of the long-standing economic cooperation and friendship between the two countries. Mr Saeed made these remarks while speaking to the media after the opening ceremony of the Second Azerbaijan National Urban Forum and Global Observance of World Habitat Day in Baku, on Saturday. The World Habitat Day ceremony, held under the theme “Resilient cities as a driving force of economic development and fighting inequalities,” was organised by the State Committee on Urban Planning and Architecture of Azerbaijan in collaboration with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in Zangilan as part of ‘Azerbaijan Urban Week.’ “The Government of Pakistan and its people fully support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan and express solidari...

DUBAI: Israel and Saudi Arabia have agreed to the outline of a historic US-brokered deal to normalise relations, the White House said on Friday, amid reports that the pact would be devoid of “iron-clad defence guarantees” and major concessions to Palestinians in their bid for statehood. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the “basic framework” of the deal has been “hammered out”. “But, as in any complex arrangement, as this will inevitably be, everybody is going to have to do something. And everybody is going to have to compromise on some things.” Three regional sources familiar with the talks told Reuters the pact might fall short of the cast-iron, Nato-style defence guarantees the kingdom initially sought. Kingdom won’t get Nato-style defence guarantees from US; congressional approval remains challenge for Biden The deal could look like treaties Washington has with Asian states or, if that would not win US Congress approval, it could...

Two years since her home was demolished by the authorities, the tide seems to have turned for Fatima — or so she thinks. The 35-year-old, who lives in Thorani Goth in Orangi, is ecstatic because she and her husband, Mohammad Tasleem, have finally received the remaining Rs180,000 from the Sindh government they had been waiting for. This money is part of the interim compensation they were to be given in four tranches last year. The government had also thought that these residents would be provided with another home by 2022. This, however, did not come to pass. The first thing Fatima and Tasleem did with the money they got was to “pay off the Rs80,000 we owe to our relatives.” The remaining amount, narrates the mother of four, will allow them to move to a bigger place. She says they were tired of living in the small, “dark and dingy room” they took refuge in when their home was demolished and they moved in with Tasleem’s three brothers. For the past two years, this one room home has do...

The caretaker government on Saturday slashed the price of petrol by Rs8 per litre and that of high-speed diesel by Rs11 per litre for the next fortnight. According to a notification from the Ministry of Finance, the new price of petrol is Rs323.38 and Rs318.18 for HSD. It said the price revision was due to the variations in the international prices of petroleum products and the improvement in the exchange rate. Previously, the prices of HSD and petrol were estimated to be reduced by about Rs15-19 per litre for the Oct 1-15 period mainly because of the rupee’s appreciation. The Pakistani rupee appreciated throughout the outgoing week, seeing an improvement of 1.4 per cent against the USD in the interbank market, and is on track to be the best-performing currency this month. Last week, Caretaker Commerce and Industries Minister Gohar Ejaz had said he was hopeful that the nation would receive “ good news ” regarding petrol prices on October 1. The prices of the two essential fuels ...

ISLAMABAD: Citizens over 18 can update their voter details till October 25, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced on Thursday. The commission has decided to “unfreeze” the electoral rolls — an official list showing eligible voters residing in a particular constituency — to allow registered voters to rectify or update their details. According to ECP’s Media Outreach and Coordination Wing, the electoral rolls were frozen under Section 39 Elections Act, 2017, on July 20. However, the commission has now allowed citizens to make amends in the rolls for the sake of data accuracy. ECP unfreezes electoral rolls; sets up desks for objections on delimitations According to data shared by the ECP last week, the number of voters in Pakistan has increased by 21 million to 127m — up from 106m at the time of the 2018 general elections. The overall number of female voters increased from 46.7m in 2018 to 58.5m in 2023, while the number of male voters jumped from 59.2m to 68.5m. Th...

LONDON: The BBC published new guidance on Thursday on how its stars can use social media, after a review over impartiality prompted by former footballer Gary Line-ker criticising the UK government’s asylum policy. The broadcaster’s independent review recommended that while a programme is on air, and for a two-week window before and after, presenters on flagship shows must not endorse or attack a political party. They should also refrain from criticising the character of individual politicians in the UK, or take up an official role in campaigning groups, it said. “High-profile presenters outside of journalism should be able to express views on issues and policies — including matters of political contention — but stop well short of campaigning in party politics or for activist organisations,” the review concluded. The publicly funded broadcaster said the guidance applies to hosts of top shows such as MasterChef, Dragons’ Den, Antiques Roadshow and Strictly Come Dancing, as well as le...

KARACHI: Smooth operation of electric buses, launched in the metropolis in January this year, has become a serious challenge for its management as the half of the total 40-bus fleet is gathering dust for past several weeks after one of the two power stations faced capacity issues and failed to charge all high-tech public transport carriers. Realising the complexity of the challenge, the authorities have decided to rebuild a new power station at the Mehran Depot near the Jinnah International Airport, closing down the one in Malir Cantonment. In this connection the process has been started to install machinery and acquire the required power supply system. A source privy to the current challenges said that the electric buses were plying three different routes. “Two power stations for total 40 buses are in Bahria Town and Malir Cantt. The one in Bahria Town is working fine and 20 electric buses dedicated for its route are operational. However, the one in Malir Cantt is constantly facing...

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Friday there was a “climate of violence” and an “atmosphere of intimidation” against Indian diplomats in Canada, where the presence of Sikh separatist groups has frustrated New Delhi. “Because there is freedom of speech, to make threats and intimidate diplomats, I don’t think that’s acceptable,” Jaishankar told reporters on Friday evening in Washington. Relations between India and Canada have been tense of late, mostly due to the presence of Sikh separatists in Canada who have kept alive the movement for Khalistan, or the demand for an independent Sikh state to be carved out of India. Canada’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that Indian agents may have had a role in the June murder of Sikh separatist leader and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was labeled a “terrorist” by India. New Delhi dismissed the alleg...

PESHAWAR/LAHORE: After unearthing a “cheating racket” and “massive irregularities”, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caretaker government has decided to re-conduct the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT). Separately, the caretaker Punjab government has revised the medical college admission policy for 2023 and allowed the University of Health Sciences (UHS) to make centralised admissions to public and private medical and dental colleges. The KP cabinet decided to retake the exam during a meeting on Thursday, chaired by caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan. The test will be conducted within six weeks by Khyber Medical University, and not by Edu­cational Testing and Evaluation Agency, the provincial testing body. Punjab revises admission policy, shuns extra marks for Hafiz-i-Quran Briefing the media after the meeting, caretaker Information Minister Feroze Jamal Shah Kakakhel said the cabinet had cancelled the test conducted on September 10. He added that a committee wo...

• Police submit challans in cases against PTI leaders, workers over May 9 violence • SHC issues notice to information ministry over broadcast ban on ex-PM LAHORE: Joint investigation teams constituted to investigate the violence following PTI chief Imran Khan’s arrest in connection with a graft case in May have declared more than 900 activists, including the former prime minister and other party bigwigs, prime suspects in a dozen cases and submitted challans (charge sheets) to this effect in an anti-terrorism court on Thursday. According to Lahore police, the PTI chairman and over 900 other party leaders and activists nominated in the May 9 cases have been “declared guilty of serious offences”. “We have declared them prime accused in 12 out of the total 14 cases registered under the anti-terrorism act and other charges at Lahore’s various police stations… [and] challans have been submitted in the ATC,” DIG Operations Imran Kishwar told Dawn . He said the JITs obtained “suffic...

LARKANA / SUKKUR: Nine members of a family, including five children, were killed and two others injured when a rocket shell went off inside their house at Bangi Khan village in Kandhkot on Wednesday, police said. According to preliminary reports, some children were out grazing cattle when they found a live rocket shell. They brought it home, where it went off, causing casualties. Varying accounts emerged as to how the device exploded. In a report , SSP Kashmore-Kandhkot Mir Rohal Khan Khoso said children were playing with the shell in the house when it went off with a big bang, shaking the area. On the other hand, villagers claimed the children were trying to break the shell into pieces to sell them when it exploded. While talking to Dawn , Larkana DIG Javed Soonharo Jiskani termed it an accident. The police, accompanied by members of bomb disposal squad and forensic experts, rushed to the scene of the tragedy to collect evidence. Police cordoned off the locality and launched an...

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has started discussions with provinces on a proposal to slash federal funding for provincial development projects and devolved subjects, in order to comply with commitments made to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) amid growing interest payments. Pakistan has to achieve a primary surplus — the difference between total revenues and expenditures except interest payments — at 0.4pc of GDP (about Rs400 billion) on the basis of Rs600bn cash surpluses, which are to be returned to the federal government by the provinces. International lending agencies, particularly the World Bank, have been asking the federal government to stop providing funds to provincial projects and devolved subjects, involving fiscal savings of more than Rs700bn. Besides development schemes, the federal government is also financing devolved responsibilities, for instance vertical health projects. Federal govt to cut PSDP by Rs200-250bn At a meeting presided over by a provinci...

The city police on Wednesday said they were trying to locate a 16-year-old maid who was allegedly abducted from an apartment near Karachi’s Seaview. South Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Syed Asad Raza told Dawn.com that the girl was allegedly kidnapped by an unidentified person from the apartment on August 15 and a complaint was subsequently registered by her father. The month-old incident came to public attention when the victim’s father brought it to the local media’s notice, subsequently drawing significant attention on social media. Darakhshan police had lodged a first information report (FIR) under Section 365-B (Kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel for marriage etc.) of the Pakistan Penal Code on Aug 17. The FIR said the daughter had ventured out at 11pm on Aug 15 to buy something but did not return, adding that the family searched for her but could not find anything. The father said he suspected that some “unknown person” had abducted her for “unknown...

BEIRUT: Fighters loyal to the Syrian government clashed with Kurdish-led forces in a mainly Arab district of eastern Syria, leaving 25 people dead in two days, a war monitor said on Tuesday. The Kurdish-led Syrian Demo­cratic Forces (SDF), who are backed by Washington, said they had “driven out the regime gunmen who had infiltrated the Dheiban area” of Deir Ezzor province in the gun battles which erupted on Monday. Earlier this month, the same area saw 10 days of fighting between the SDF and armed Arab tribesmen in which 90 people were killed. Britain-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the latest clashes erupted when pro-government fighters crossed the Euphrates river, which separates pro-government forces in south-western Deir Ezzor from the SDF in the northeast. It said 21 of the dead were Damascus loyalists and three were SDF fighters. A woman was also killed. The SDF said the loyalist fighters had crossed the Euphrates “under cover of an indiscriminate b...

LONDON / ISLAMABAD: There would not be any organisational or institutional involvement, either in favour of one political group or the other in the upcoming elections, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar has said, as his remarks regarding the possibility of elections without PTI chief Imran Khan drew widespread criticism. On Tuesday, the prime minister was in the UK, where he addressed the Oxford Union and held a presser at the Pakistan High Commission where he fielded several questions from journalists; key amongst which were queries about the treatment of the PTI chief, whether he will be allowed to participate in elections, and whether his transfer from Attock Jail to Adiala has any deeper meaning. He said his words about Imran Khan’s prospects of contesting the next election were being twisted, and that the law will decide whether he will contest or not. “What people aren’t understanding is that it is not political. Whatever happens will be under law and due process. I ...

LAHORE: The Punjab government has slapped a ban on the use of Avastin injection for eye patients for an indefinite period across the province, besides launching a portal to collect data of the patients affected by the drug and provide them treatment facilities. The data collection through the portal launched by the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department will help the government prepare a policy regarding the use of the injection. Provincial health ministers Dr Jamal Nasir and Dr Javed Akram said this while addressing a joint press conference here on Tuesday. They said the ban was imposed as a high-level inquiry was underway to find out the prime factors leading to vision loss among patients administered the injection in Punjab. 68 affected patients have surfaced in Punjab so far They asked the affected patients to provide necessary information on the portal to get treatment and help the government in assessing the true impact of the drug’s reaction. They said that so far ...

• Imran Khan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s remand in cipher case extended until October 10 • IHC rejects FIA plea seeking in-camera proceedings • Lawyer says ex-PM was averse to move to Rawalpindi prison because of inordinate delay in decision TAXILA / ISLAMABAD: Hours after a special court extended his judicial remand till Oct 10, former prime minister Imran Khan who is imprisoned for his alleged involvement in the cipher case under the Official Secrets Act, was moved to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi from Attock Jail by a large contingent of Islamabad police, amid strict security on Tuesday. The decision to move the PTI chairman from Attock to Rawalpindi came a day after the Islamabad High Court had directed the police to transfer Imran Khan to Adiala Jail, in response to a petition he had moved earlier. In the written order on shifting Mr Khan to Adiala Jail, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq said the petitioner should be granted better class facilities as per his entitlement as provided in ...

ISLAMABAD: The European Union has released an additional one million euros in humanitarian aid to respond to floods that directly or indirectly affected some 900,000 people in the past weeks. The new funding comes in addition to the 16.5 million euros already allocated in humanitarian assistance to Pakistan earlier this year, in order to assist the most vulnerable population affected by conflict and climate-induced disasters. The funding will help address the most pressing needs of vulnerable people in Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, says a press release of EU delegation in Islamabad on Monday. The Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, said: “One year after the tragic floods that caused tremendous suffering in Pakistan, the EU remains committed to helping those most in need. “As the new rains have displaced thousands of people in parts of the country, the additional EU funding will help support vulnerable communities as they try to recover the...

TORONTO: Canadian Sikhs staged protests outside India’s diplomatic missions on Monday, a week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there may be a link between New Delhi and the murder of a Sikh separatist advocate in British Columbia. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a week ago stood in parliament to say that domestic intelligence agencies were actively pursuing credible allegations tying New Delhi’s agents to the shooting of Canadian citizen Hardeep Sing Ninja, 45, in June. About 100 protesters in Toronto burned an Indian flag and struck a cardboard cut-out of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a shoe. About 200 protesters also gathered outside the Vancouver consulate. Demonstrators use their shoes to hit a placard depicting Indian prime minister Narendra Modi during a Sikh rally outside the Consulate General of India, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on September 25, following the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.— AFP In Ottawa, fewer than 100 people gathered...

ISLAMABAD: In an unusual public rebuke, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has advised against speculation on petroleum prices, which could “disrupt” the smooth supply chain. In a public statement on Monday, the petroleum regulator emphasised “the importance of avoiding speculations regarding the prices of petroleum products”. Even though the statement excluded any explicit reference, the caution was apparently in response to the statements by two caretaker federal ministers, who had hinted at a reduction in prices in the next fortnightly review, due on Sept 30. Their optimism was based on the improved value of the rupee, which has gone up by Rs16.24 against the dollar since hitting a record low of 307.1 in the inter-bank market on Sept 5. Regulator’s ‘unusual’ warning comes on heels of optimistic statements by two members of caretaker cabinet On Monday, Ogra pointed out that the prices are determined on the basis of international market prices and the exchange rate. ...