latest news

Marine Le Pen, head of the French far-right Rassemblement National parliamentary group in the National Assembly, casts her ballot in the first round of elections in Henin-Beaumont, on Sunday.—AFP PARIS: French voters flocked to the polls in numbers not seen for decades on Sunday for the first round of snap parliamentary elections , which could see the far-right party of Marine Le Pen take power in a historic first. President Emmanuel Macron stunned the nation by calling snap polls after the far-right National Rally (RN) party trounced his centrist forces in European Parliament elections this month. But the gamble risks backfiring, with Macron’s alliance predicted in opinion polls to come only third behind the rampant RN and a new leftist New Popular Front (NFP). Julien Martin, a 38-year-old architect, voting in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, said: “These are not easy elections, the results are very uncertain, and the repercussions could be serious for society.” With the ...

ISLAMABAD: Taking on both the government and opposition parties, the mercurial Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Sunday said that the incumbent government was incapable of allaying their concerns about the Feb 8 polls, while the PTI appeared confused about the way forward. Addressing a press conference after a meeting of his party’s Majlis-i-Shura, which spanned two days, the JUI-F chief demanded snap elections without the interference of the establishment. The Maulana said his party had reached the conclusion that the government was incapable of addressing the concerns of the JUI-F and other political parties. He also alluded to a resolution recently passed by the US House of Repre­sentatives about free and fair polls to support his call for fresh elections. Opposes ‘Azm-i-Istehkam’; says govt blaming Kabul to cover ‘own failures’ According to the Maulana, the JUI-F was also concerned about the intentions of the PTI and the Sunni Ittehad Council; therefore, it has decided to push for sn...

LAHORE: Amid escalating tensions with the treasury, the opposition in the Punjab Assembly held its own session on Saturday, pledging not to accept “fake Form-47” Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, even if the speaker suspended all its lawmakers. Opposition lawmakers from the PTI (Sunni Ittehad Council) and ruling PML-N lawmakers had been at loggerheads after 11 opposition members were suspended for 15 sittings due to “rowdyism” during Maryam Nawaz’s speech on Friday. The government further escalated the situation by stripping opposition leader Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar of his perks and privileges and closing his chamber in the assembly. A heavy contingent of police and a prisoner van were stationed outside the Punjab Assembly as the session began on Saturday, with orders to prevent the 11 suspended lawmakers from entering. Expressing solidarity with their suspended members, the opposition lawmakers held their own session outside the assembly gate and made fiery speeches against CM Mar...

• Approves realignment of Karakoram Highway between Thakot, Raikot • Green-lights revised PC-I of new Gwadar airport • Upgrade of Railways ML-1 project fails to get nod ISLAMABAD: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Saturday approved 19 development projects worth Rs411.01 billion in various sectors, especially in Sindh and Balochistan. The Ecnec meeting, presided over by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, also approved a multimillion-dollar World Bank project for the realignment of Karakoram Highway (KKH) between Thakot and Raikot, costing 13.067 billion yuan. The meeting considered 21 agenda items recommended to it in various meetings of the Central Develop­ment Working Party (CDWP) and accorded approval to 19 projects. On June 15, Prime Minis­ter Shehbaz Sharif decided to remove Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb from his position as Ecnec chairman. In his place, Mr Dar, who also holds the portfolio of foreign minister, has been appointed as t...

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi bench has admitted a petition challenging PIA’s privatisation process and also asked the top law officer to respond to the questions raised in the plea. Justice Jawad Hassan issued the order on Friday on a pro bono petition filed against the procedure adopted to privatise PIA. The judge also expressed his intention to examine the law introduced by the previous caretaker government to set up an appellate tribunal for privatisation disputes. The petition stated that the government issued an advertisement to privatise the national carrier without properly evaluating its local and foreign assets as required under the Privati­sation Commission Ordinance, 2000. When the judge questioned the petitioner’s counsel over the plea’s maintainability, he argued the requirements in Section 23 of the Privatisation Commission Ordinance, 2000 have not been met. While proceeding with the privatisation process, principles already settled by the S...

Pakistan clinched four spots in the finals of the Asian Junior Squash Championship at the Mushaf Sports Complex in Islamabad after a grueling round of semi-finals on Friday. Saturday’s finals will see Pakistani teammates Huzaifa Shahid and Sohail Adnan battle it out for the Boys U-13 title, while Abdullah Nawaz faces Malaysia’s Nikhileswar Moganasundharam in the U-17 category at the 31st edition of the championship. Last year’s world champion Hamza Khan will face off Malaysia’s Harith Danial in the U-19 category. Not a single Pakistani girl advanced to the semi-finals in the tournament, which has featured some 200 players from a dozen countries across the U-13, U-15, U-17 and U-19 categories. Earlier this month, the Ali sisters fueled Pakistan’s medal rush at the PBA 20th Penang Malaysia Junior Open. Sohail had a clean win over Malaysia’s Muhammad Ifwat Zulkifli, beating him 11-8, 11-6, 11-2 to advance to the finals. The Malaysians lost another spot in the Boys U-13 final as Hu...

INDIA’S Axar Patel celebrates the wicket of England’s Moeen Ali in Guyana.—AFP NEW DELHI: A dominant India ended England’s title defence by handing them a 68-run thumping in the second semi-final of the T20 World Cup on Thursday and secure their place in the final against South Africa. Put into bat in the rain-hit match, India posted a strong 171-7 with skipper Rohit Sharma (57) and Suryakumar Yadav (47) scoring bulk of the runs on a slow track at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. The 2007 champions then returned to bundle out England for 103 inside 17 overs with their spin duo of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav wreaking havoc with the turning ball. India managed 46 runs from the six power-play overs and it cost them the wickets of Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant. Rohit began with a couple of streaky shots but soon grew in confidence before rain stopped play with India 65-2 in eight overs. Once play resumed more than an hour later, Rohit reached his 36-ball. Adil Rashid bowled Rohit...

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Cou­rt on Thursday asked the ECP to furnish a clear list of PTI’s candidates, who had furnished both the declaration, as well as the party affiliation certificates, along with their nomination papers for the Feb 8 polls. Justice Yahya Afridi, a member of the full court, asked the ECP to provide such information for clarity due to anomalies which cropped up during the hearing. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa heads the full court hearing the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) appeal against the March 14 Peshawar High Court’s denial of reserved seats to the party. The CJP observed that a punishment was inflicted on PTI by denying common election symbol of ‘bat’ to them by the ECP after they had failed to hold intra-party elections. ECP could have given PTI candidates a different symbol, didn’t need to strip them of party identity, Justice Akhtar observes These candidates did not change their positions at the time of filing of nomination papers, but...

• Changes effective for civilians from July 1, armed forces from next year • Gross pension to be based on 70pc of salary in last two years of service • Ordinary Family Pension to apply for 10 years, for life in case of children with special needs • ‘Rehired’ retirees can either retain pension or salary ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Thursday approved major changes to the federal government’s pension system, set to be notified on July 1 after formal endorsement of the federal cabinet. The ECC, presided over by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, also sanctioned nearly Rs500 billion in technical and supplementary grants just two days before the close of the fiscal year 2023-24. The committee also decided to relaunch the “Risk Coverage Scheme for SMEs” and approved a Ministry of IT summary to return Rs11.13bn to the Universal Service Fund (USF) to address the budget shortfall. Informed sources said the changes to the pension scheme for civil...

ISLAMABAD: In a significant development, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan resigned from his party positions, lending credence to reports of fissures within the party ranks. Sources in the PTI told Dawn that Omar Ayub, who is also leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, submitted his resignation on June 22, which has been accepted by founding chairman Imran Khan. The move came as a surprise, even for some PTI insiders, who said they thought the founder would not accept the resignation and ask Omar Ayub to continue in his position . In his resignation, shared by Omar Ayub on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle, Mr Omar wrote that it was not possible for him to continue working as the party’s secretary general and also justify his job as opposition leader in the National Assembly. He also indicated that he would be stepping down as chairman of the PTI’s Central Finance Board, but maintained that he would continue as a party worker. “I ...

GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan administration has protested to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the latter’s “unilateral decision” to postpone the Shandur polo festival. The three-day festival was scheduled to begin on Friday (tomorrow). On Monday, the KP government announced the postponement of the event due to “inclement weather”. Criticising the move, the deputy commissioner of Ghizer, a district in Gilgit-Baltistan, said in a letter to his Chitral counterpart that it was “extremely disappointing and shocking for us in GB” to learn that the Shandur polo festival had been postponed. “This event is a cornerstone of our cultural heritage and a symbol of our districts’ friendship and cooperation. It is astonishing that the tourism department of KP has taken a decision without consultation, despite the fact that Shandur is a historic area of Gilgit-Baltistan,” said Habibur Rehman, the deputy commissioner. He said such decisions were always taken after consultations between the two administrat...

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday said it had issued arrest warrants for Russia’s army chief and ex-defence minister over strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure that constituted alleged war crimes. The ICC warrants are the latest in a series of actions by the court over the Ukraine war, including an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The warrants, issued on Monday but made public on Tuesday, concerned the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, and former defence minister Sergei Shoigu. The pair are accused of the war crimes of directing attacks at civilian targets and causing excessive incidental harm to civilians, as well as the crime against humanity of “inhumane acts” in Ukraine, the ICC said in a statement. ICC judges said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects bear responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure from at least October...

WASHINGTON: In what has become the deadliest period for journalists since records began in 1992, the UN and independent observers are reporting a “systemic pattern” of targeting journalists and media workers in the Israeli-occupied territories. A major global cross-newsroom collaboration produced a series of reports this week on the systematic targeting of journalists by Israel. The reports also highlight how journalists in Gaza are defying death threats to perform their duty. According to the reports, surviving Gazan journalists have long known that their “press vests do not protect them. Worse, the protective gear might further expose them”. Local reporters know, too, that “they are on their own, with the Israeli authorities banning foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip”, the report adds. Guardian says military views journalists working for Palestinian media outlets as ‘legitimate targets’ “Those who are still there have been injured, detained, lost their family m...

THIS screengrab from officially released footage shows Dagestan region governor Sergei Melikov (third from right) inspecting the synagogue which came under attack, on Monday.—AFP MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Monday dismissed fears Russia’s historically restive North Caucasus region faces a wave of violence after a series of coordinated weekend attacks on churches, synagogues and police killed at least 20 in the southern Dagestan region. The attacks on Sunday came just three months after the militant Islamic State (IS) group fighters killed more than 140 in a Moscow concert hall, the deadliest attack on Russia for almost 20 years. Moscow said on Monday it had concluded an “anti-terrorist operation” and killed five of the assailants behind the attacks in the cities of Makhachkala and Derbent. The incidents had echoes of the kind of insurgent violence that struck the North Caucasus during the 1990s and 2000s, but the Kremlin on Monday dismissed fears of a renewed wave of attacks. Go...

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Local police have registered a case against seven tribesmen for killing an endangered leopard in the Dera Bugti district of Balochistan. According to sources, the tribesmen killed the leopard to protect their livestock in Zain area of the district. Dera Bugti Deputy Commissioner Ejaz Khan that the district administration has re­­g­­­istered a case under The Balochistan (Wil­d­­­life Protection, Pre­s­e­rvation, Conser­va­t­ion and Management) Act 2014 and initiated legal proceedings against the tribesmen. He also called for commencing awareness campaigns by wildlife organisations to educate the tribesmen about protecting endangered species. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti has also taken notice of the incident and directed the authorities to take stern legal action against the accused. Former WWF Pakistan activist Umer Waqas identified the leopard as a Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana). This species is native to the Iranian Plateau, including the...

WASHINGTON: Three more US officials, including two from the military, have resigned this week in protest against Washington’s support for Israeli military operations in Gaza, US media reported on Sunday. Larry Hebert and Juan Bettancourt announced their unwillingness to continue serving in light of the US military’s role in the conflict. The development follows the resignation of Andrew Miller, a senior official at the US Department of State and an expert on Israeli-Palestinian affairs. Miller expressed his discontent with the Biden administration’s policies amid the eight-month-long conflict in Gaza. The death of six-year-old Hind Rajab in February, after she was trapped under Israeli fire in Gaza, prompted Larry Hebert Jr., an active-duty US airman, to seek conscientious objector status from the US military. Some officials say Israeli actions in enclave amount to ‘genocide’ “She looks almost just like my daughter, and that was something that was extremely hard to grasp, is tha...

GILGIT: Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan has expressed concern over extraordinary delays and frequent cancellations of PIA flights to the region, particularly during peak tourism season. In a letter sent to federal Minister for Aviation Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Saturday, the GB CM criticised PIA for its erratic flight schedule to Gilgit and Skardu airports, terming it irresponsible behaviour and demanding that the minister ensure regular flights to both airports. “These cancellations have not only caused significant inconvenience to the residents and visitors of the region but also severely impacted the ability of the Gilgit-Baltistan government to meet its commitments at the federal level,” he lamented. He said air travel is the primary mode of transportation for officials and representatives of the GB government to attend crucial meetings, conferences, and other engagements in Islamabad and other parts of Pakistan. In recent months, he added, there has been a noti...

ISLAMABAD: Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has sought reports from sector commanders of Inter-Services Intellige­nce and Military Intelli­g­ence deputed in Rawal­pindi, Islamabad and Azad Jammu and Kashmir on a petition seeking the whereabouts of a citizen. Mr Khursheed, a resident of Neelum Valley, went missing on June 7, according to the petition filed by Khaleeqa Khursheed. She stated Mr Khursheed was in Rawal­pindi and went to G-13 sector of Islamabad, but did not return home. The petitioner’s counsel informed the IHC that Mr Khursheed’s brother had lodged a complaint with local police but he could not be traced. In its order on Saturday, the court noted that deputy attorney general submitted written reports on behalf of FIA and CTD in compliance with June 14 direction to the government. Both FIA and CTD reports have denied custody of Mr Khursheed. The defence ministry’s law officer asked Justice Kayani for more time to file reports on behalf of t...

ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi met Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Rana Sanaullah on Friday to convey that the provincial government was challenging the writ of the state by forcibly entering grid stations and restoring power supply to many areas. According to a statement issued by the PM Office, PM Shehbaz said the federal government would provide utmost assistance and resources for the welfare of the people of KP. A row between the Centre and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on loadshedding, which had ostensibly been settled last month, was resurrected on Wednesday after KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur issued another ultimatum, telling the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) to reduce outages on all grids to 12 hours a day. Pesco is among those distribution companies whose power losses are as high as 60 per cent and last month, Energy Minister Awais Leghari had explained that those feeders where losses we...

The Swat police on Friday registered two first information reports (FIRs) over the previous night’s lynching of a man in Madyan with arrests yet to be made. A mob had brutally lynched a man — who had been detained for the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran — inside the Madyan police station on Thursday evening. The mob then set fire to the suspect’s body, the police station and a police vehicle. This was the second incident of someone being lynched on suspicion of blasphemy in recent weeks; a man was killed in Sargodha last month over similar allegations. According to locals, some individuals announced in a market that a man had committed blasphemy, leading others to apprehend him and hand him over to the police. But shortly afterwards, announcements were also made from mosques in Madyan, a known tourist destination in Swat, mobilising the people towards the police station in anger. According to witnesses, the mob asked police to hand over the suspect to them, and on their ref...

KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday inaugurated the Sindh Smart Surveillance System (S4) project aimed at providing a comprehensive and integrated security solution for all major entry and exit points connecting all major cities in the province. Officials have said that the system would enable effective monitoring of entry and exit points and ensure security through the integration of advanced technologies such as facial and number plate recognition at 40 toll plazas, including 18 in Karachi. They said that the project also aimed at enhancing security responses and seamlessly integrating with the existing command and control centre at the Central Police Office (CPO). The inauguration ceremony of the first of the Sindh Safe Cities-related project was held at the CPO. CM Murad says project will help arrest over 80,000 absconding criminals, reduce vehicle theft and snatching Speaking on the occasion, CM Shah hoped that the S4 project would facilitate the arrest...

A man was killed by a mob over alleged desecration of the Holy Quran in the Madyan area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat district on Thursday night, police said. Eight people were injured in the unrest, according to Swat District Police Officer (DPO) Dr Zahidullah Khan. He said the police had moved the suspect of the alleged desecration incident to the police station but a charged mob “attacked the police station and took the suspect away”. “People set fire to the police station and a mobile vehicle,” the DPO said, adding that the suspect was “torched”. More details are awaited while an investigation is underway. DPO Khan said a heavy police force was deployed in Madyan and was trying to control the tense situation. Madyan is one of the famous tourist spots of Swat Valley apart from Kalam, Bahrain and other sites. It is around 245 kilometres from the provincial capital of Peshawar. A statement posted by the PTI said KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur took notice of the “unfortunate”...

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has extended the deadline to September 16 for transferring pending cases involving multi-billion tax amounts to the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue (ATIR) to expedite the resolution. The tax disputes pending before the Commissioner Inland Revenue-Appeal (CIRA) involving more than Rs20 million in income tax or refund, more than Rs10m in sales tax and Rs5m in federal excise duty would be moved to the newly established ATIR. The CIRA will hear cases below the ATIR’s threshold. The new appeal system was implemented through the Tax Laws (Amendment) Act 2024 , which was not part of the Finance Bill 2024. The new appeals will also follow the threshold to determine whether ATIR or CIRA will file the case, and the decisions of these bodies can be contested before the high courts by the aggrieved persons. According to the new amendment, the commissioner will not recover any tax for 30 days from the date of communication of the CIRA or ATIR orde...

RAWALPINDI: As Pakistan continues to face sizzling heat , weather experts have expected that western winds and rains in upper parts of the country will bring down the temperature by a few notches till June 22. “The country is facing a transition period of weather pattern…we do not call it pre-monsoon rains as rains are expected due to the winds coming from the west. The pre-monsoon rains will likely start from July 1,” said a Met Department official. The monsoon season will run from July 15 to Sept 15 across Pakistan. He said intermittent rains were expected in the upper parts of the country. “Weather will remain warm in the afternoon, but cool breeze and rain are expected in the evening or night till June 22,” he elaborated. The official said that moist currents from Arabian sea were penetrating upper or central parts of the country, adding that a shallow westerly wave is also present over those regions. He said that windstorm/thunderstorm coupled with rain is expected at isolate...

Journalist Khalil Jibran was gunned down in the Landi Kotal area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Khyber district on Tuesday night, the police said. According to a statement from District Police Officer (DPO) Saleem Abbas, unknown assailants in a vehicle pulled the journalist out of his car near his home and fled the scene after shooting him dead. DPO Abbas said the body was moved to a local hospital for a postmortem examination. He said the deceased was associated with Khyber News for a long time and was also a former president of the Landi Kotal press club, adding that Jibran had received threats from terrorists before as well. The DPO said a case was registered on the complaint of Advocate Sajjad, who was with Jibran and a witness to the crime. The first information report, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was registered at the Landi Kotal police station under Sections 302 (intentional murder) and 324 (attempted murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The journalist’s funeral p...

Diplomats on Tuesday said at least 550 pilgrims died during the hajj, underscoring the gruelling nature of the pilgrimage which again unfolded in scorching temperatures this year. At least 323 of those who died were Egyptians, most of them succumbing to heat-related illnesses, two Arab diplomats coordinating their countries’ responses told AFP . “All of them (the Egyptians) died because of heat” except for one who sustained fatal injuries during a minor crowd crush, one of the diplomats said, adding the total figure came from the hospital morgue in the Al-Muaisem neighbourhood of Makkah. At least 60 Jordanians also died, the diplomats said, up from an official tally of 41 given earlier on Tuesday by Amman. The new deaths bring the total reported so far by multiple countries to 577, according to an AFP tally. The diplomats said the total at the morgue in Al-Muaisem, one of the biggest in Makkah, was 550. The Haj pilgrimage is increasingly affected by climate change, according to...