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WASHINGTON: In what appeared to be a major disclosure about the investigation, US President Donald Trump said on Friday the Blackhawk helicopter that collided with a regional passenger jet in Washington, D.C. was flying too high at the time of the accident. The US Army did not immediately respond to a request for comment. US military helicopters regularly fly a route over the Potomac river near the busy Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, known as Route 4. For safety reasons, the altitude on those helicopter flights is capped at 200 feet (61 metres). “The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200-foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???” Trump said in a Truth Social post. The crash remains under investigation by federal transportation authorities. Department of Defence to examine military chopper’s flight recorder; report expected in 30 days US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier said there appeared to ...

The government on Friday slightly raised the price of petrol by Re1 per litre and that of high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs7 for the next fortnight. A press release from the Finance Division said the new prices were decided after Ogra reviewed and adjusted consumer prices for petroleum products given “recent fluctuations in the international oil market”. The new petrol price is Rs257.13 and that of HSD is Rs267.95. Any changes in the prices of light diesel oil and kerosene oil were not mentioned. Informed sources had earlier said the ex-depot petrol price was estimated to go up by Rs2-3 per litre depending on the final calculation today. Kerosene and diesel prices were estimated to rise by about Rs6 per litre. The estimates were based on the bullish trend in the international market. The Brent prices have risen by up to $2 per barrel last fortnight. These sources said the average prices of HSD increased by more than $2.50 per barrel in the international market while that of petrol i...

GWADAR: An alliance of different political parties, which had been protesting for the last 47 days in the port city of Gwadar, called off their sit-in on Thursday following successful negotiations with district authorities. The alliance has given the district administration one month to address the issues that prompted the protest. After the negotiations, a seven-point agreement was signed between both parties. As a result, the alliance leadership decided to end their sit-in protest until the month of Ramazan. During the talks, the district administration agreed to immediately implement the seven-point plan, which includes actions to combat illegal trawling, reduce load-shedding in Gwadar to provide 17 hours of electricity daily, allot a colony for local fishermen, accelerate ongoing projects in the town by the Gwadar Development Authority (GDA), and ensure an uninterrupted supply of clean water to residents. The negotiations were attended by Gwadar Additional Deputy Commissioner ...

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawal­pindi bench has set aside a previous order in a case involving Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) and the federation of Pakistan, directing that the matter be reconsidered by a single judge of the high court. A division bench, comprising Justice Sultan Tanvir Ahmad and Justice Jawad Hassan, ruled on an intra-court appeal (ICA) filed by ARL against a Nov 10, 2020, order issued by a single judge in chamber. The court found that the previous ruling wrongly delegated the case to the Collector of Customs, who lacked jurisdiction to determine the constitutionality of a law. The case originated from ARL’s writ petition, which challenged the vires of Section 31(A) of the Customs Act, 1969, and Sections 6(1) and 6(1A) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990. Orders rehearing, rules Customs collector lacked jurisdiction Instead of addressing the constitutional challenge, the single judge referred the case to the Collector of Customs, a decision the LHC bench ...

Incarcerated PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan has penned a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, extolling the top judge to bring about an end to the “terror and brutality by the state and the suppression of democracy”, it emerged on Thursday. Titled “Meltdown of the constitutional order in Pakistan”, the letter, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com , was dated January 24 and signed from Adiala Jail where he is incarcerated. Following the arrest of the ex-premier on May 9, 2023, from the Islamabad High Court’s premises, riots erupted across the country and went on for at least 24 hours. The state subsequently launched a crackdown against him and his party, filing several other cases against Imran since the events of May 9, in many of which he has been acquitted. The period since has been one of political instability with the government and opposition at loggerheads with each other. “You are hereby called upon to exercise all powers vested in t...

• Only two members of Constitutional Bench review details of procedure adopted during military trials of May 9 suspects • Govt counsel says judges ‘can’t keep’, but review the papers • Judges wonder if military court judges are ‘independent’ or subordinate to their superiors ISLAMABAD: The Constitutional Bench (CB) of the apex court, on Wednesday, returned sealed envelopes submitted by the government counsel, which outlined the procedures followed during the military trial of civilians involved in the May 9, 2023, attacks on military installations. Though the judges took a cursory look, they returned the envelopes when Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail suggested that it would not be appropriate to examine the documents, as the matter might reach the high courts and eventually land at the Supreme Court’s door in future appeals. At this, all members of the seven-judge CB preferred returning the documents, except for Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, who expressed his desire to read the pro...

• Beach plays down Richard Grenell’s pro-PTI remarks, says he may have been ‘misled’ • Govt offers support as US investors eye Pakistan for investments in several areas ISLAMABAD: A close aide to US President Donald Trump, who is currently leading a delegation of investors to Pakistan to explore business opportunities, said on Wednesday the US administration has nothing but respect for the incumbent leadership of Pakistan, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Gentry Beach, who also met PM Shehbaz, made these remarks at a press conference as journalists asked him questions about Richard Grenell — Trump’s special missions envoy in the new administration — who had tweeted in support of incarcerated PTI chief Imran Khan, stirring controversy. The US investor said Mr Grenell “may have been misled” about Pakistan. “He personally told me there are a number of deepfakes, AI presentations on the internet … it’s not true or real,” he said in response to a question. According to Mr Beach, ...

A man who recently brought his family back to Quetta from the United States on Wednesday confessed to shooting his teenage daughter dead, motivated by his disapproval of her TikTok content, according to the police. The shooting happened on a street in Quetta on Monday night. The suspect initially said that unidentified gunmen shot and killed his American-born 15-year-old daughter before he confessed to the crime, Gawalmandi Station House Officer (SHO) Babar Baloch said. “Our investigation so far has found that the family had an objection to her dressing, lifestyle and social gathering,” Serious Crimes Investigation Wing (SCIW) Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Zohaib Mohsin said. “We have her phone. It is locked,” he told Reuters . “We are probing all aspects, including ‘honour’ killing.” The family recently returned to Balochistan after having lived in the US for about 25 years, SHO Baloch said. He said that the suspect has US citizenship, adding that the suspect told him the ...

• Dialogue committee to continue working till Jan 31 as speaker says ‘doors still open’ for talks • PTI woos JUI-F again to put up a joint front; Asad Qaiser and Kamran Murtaza tasked with making sure there are no misunderstandings this time around ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to give one more chance to the PTI to rejoin the dialogue after the opposition party did not turn up for the fourth round of talks on Tuesday, in which the government had promised to share its response to its charter of demands . Senator Irfan Siddiqui, the spokesperson for the government negotiation team, said they would wait for the PTI until the end of the month. “Following the meeting of the committee, which was skipped by the PTI, we (the government) sat together and decided… we will wait till Jan 31, the deadline given by the PTI for the fulfilment of their demands.” He said the talks were “ practically ” at an end after the opposition party skipped the fourth round, adding that they would ap...

Islamabad High Court (IHC) senior puisne judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani on Tuesday said that the 26th Constitutional Amendment — which brought numerous changes pertaining to the judiciary — was based on “one letter”. Addressing the IHC Bar Association today, the judge lauded the efforts of Islamabad’s bar and lawyer bodies for preserving their rights and those of the nation. “Only with the law’s correct interpretation and implementation can you see Pakistan on the destination of progress. For that, legal changes, even if it is the 26th Constitutional Amendment, cannot dissuade you from your purposes. “Such stages have kept coming in Pakistan’s history but ponder this, that one letter has changed the entire system in Pakistan. I don’t need to mention it but you’re all witness that the 26th Constitutional Amendment is based on one letter. “To what extent this is sustained? I hope that at the end the full bench of the Supreme Court hears and this issue will be resolved for the pe...

• PPP senators demand moot to discuss proposed canals • Opposition, journalists walk out over Peca ISLAMABAD: Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar has refused to commit to a date for convening the Council of Common Interests (CCI), to discuss the water-sharing dispute among provinces. The issue of proposed canals on the Indus River cropped up once again in the Senate on Monday, when PPP members raised the issue and sought a meeting of the CCI, which has all four provincial chief ministers as its members. Meanwhile, the opposition PTI walked out of the house after staging a noisy protest over the amendments in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016. Journalists also walked out of the media gallery in protest against the proposed legislation, most likely to be passed by the Upper House today (Tuesday), following approval from a Senate standing committee a day before. Law Minister Tarar chided the opposition for disrupting the proceedings and said the protest was ...

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi on Monday rejected an acquittal plea by PTI founder Imran Khan in a case concerning the attack on the army’s General Head­quarters during violent protests on May 9, 2023. The May 9 protests turned violent as supporters torched and vandalised state buildings and military installations, prompted by the arrest of the PTI founder in a corruption case. Following the event, the government launched a crackdown on PTI leaders and supporters, following which several arrests were made. However, many of the leaders were granted bail. Imran was indicted in the case on December 5 last year. The PTI founder, who has been incarcerated in Adiala Jail since August 2023, was arrested by the Rawalpindi police in the May 9 protest case in January 2024. He, however, filed an application seeking acquittal. ATC Judge Amjad Ali Shah presided over a hearing for the case today. The prosecution argued that the trial was still ongoing and the testimony of 12 wit...

IN his efforts to restore America’s supposed greatness, Donald Trump has launched a crackdown on migrants — mostly undocumented but also some with papers. Soon after re-entering the White House a week ago, the US president signed a raft of executive orders designed to deliver on his campaign promises. These orders have included the rounding up of migrants signalling the start of what the White House press secretary has termed “the largest massive deportation operation in history”. Moreover, a ‘Muslim ban-plus’ has been announced; it goes even further than the 2017 order, which prevented citizens from certain Muslim-majority countries from travelling to the US. Foreign students in America who dare to speak up for Palestine also risk being put on a plane back home. Also, the US president has frozen the asylum and refugee programmes; at least 25,000 Afghans waiting to move to the US in Pakistan now find themselves in limbo . For Mr Trump and his MAGA support base, these moves ar...

WASHINGTON: Pete Hegseth narrowly secured enough votes on Friday to become the next US defence secretary, a major victory for President Donald Trump after fierce opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans to his controversial nominee. Hegseth was confirmed after a 50-50 vote in the Senate, when Vice President JD Vance came to the chamber to break the tie in his role as president of the Senate, after three Republicans joined every Democrat and independent in voting no. Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and decorated veteran, is promising to bring major changes to the Pentagon. But his leadership will be under intense scrutiny after a bruising confirmation review that raised se­­rious questions about his qualifications, temperament and views about women in combat. Hegseth is the most divisive candidate to clinch the US military’s top job, a position that has historically gone to candidates with deep experience running large organisations and who enjoy broad bipartisan s...

ONE step forward, two steps back. That had been the progress so far in long-awaited negotiations between the opposition PTI and the ruling coalition, but all talks have now been called off by the PTI’s incarcerated founder after a ‘raid’ on an allied lawmaker’s residence. Following the raid, former prime minister Imran Khan decided on Thursday that the government was being ‘non-cooperative’ and, therefore, there was little to be gained from continuing negotiations with it. One wonders if he was a tad impatient in making that call. After all, his party had previously announced that talks would be given a chance at least till the end of January , after which it would take decisions regarding its next steps forward. The government, too, had promised to respond to the PTI’s written demands by Jan 28 and had repeatedly asked the party not to abandon the committee set up for parleys between the two political camps. It was, no doubt, a poor play by the authorities to sanction a raid ...

ISLAMABAD: Member of the National Assembly Junaid Akbar Khan, belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), was unanimously elected as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) during a meeting on Friday. JUNAID Akbar Khan The position had been vacant since the February 2024 general elections, which brought the PML-N government to power. The election process was completed over a month after NA Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq had asked both sides of the aisle in the lower house of parliament to nominate candidates for the PAC chairmanship within a week. The PAC chairmanship is usually held by leader of the opposition or their nominee, though there is no legal requirement for this parliamentary tradition. The Friday election followed nominations by senior political figures, including PML-N’s chief whip Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan, and Leader of the Opposition in Senate Shibli Faraz. These nominations were supported by othe...

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would like to get rid of the main federal agency that responds to natural disasters during a visit to areas of North Carolina that were devastated by Hurricane Helene in September. Trump, on his first trip since reclaiming the presidency on Monday, accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) of bungling emergency relief efforts in North Carolina. He vowed to sign an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally overhauling or eliminating the agency. “Fema has turned out to be a disaster,” he said during a tour of a neighbourhood destroyed by Helene where trees were downed and homes had boarded-up windows. “I think we recommend that Fema go away.” Fema brings in emergency personnel, supplies and equipment to help areas begin to recover from natural disasters, and funding for the agency has soared in recent years as extreme weather events increase the demand for its services. The agency, which has 10 regional offices and...

QUETTA: Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti has said Balochis­tan is Pakistan’s gateway to regional and global trade, highlighting that the province offers immense investment opportunities and has the potential to become a leading economic hub for the global community. “Balochistan is emerging as an attractive destination for investors worldwide, and we are committed to steering it further on the path of development,” he said while addressing an international event organised by the Pathfinder Group in Switzerland. The chief minister was the guest of honour at the event on Wednesday, which was atten­ded by business leaders and development experts from across the globe. According to CM House officials, Mr Bugti in his address highlighted that Pakistan, with its population of 240 million, boasts a significant proportion of youth, serving as a crucial asset for the country’s development. “Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan, covering 44pc of the country’s landmass, is rich in natura...

A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blocked US President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing an executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the United States, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional”. US District Judge John Coughenour at the urging of four Democratic-led states issued a temporary restraining order preventing the administration from enforcing the order, which the Republican president signed on Monday during his first day in office. “This is [a] blatantly unconstitutional order,” the judge told a lawyer with the US Justice Department defending Trump’s order. The order has already become the subject of five lawsuits by civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general from 22 states, who call it a flagrant violation of the US Constitution. “Under this order, babies being born today don’t count as US citizens,” Washington Assistant Attorney General Lane Polozola told Senior US District Judge John Coughenour at the star...

• Jaishankar dismisses possibility of trade with Pakistan • Diplomats trying to arrange Modi-Trump meeting WASHINGTON: Following the inauguration of Donald Trump, India has flexed its muscle in the US, with its foreign minister being among the first to meet the newly-minted secretary of state, and efforts already underway to arrange a meeting between the new US president and Narendra Modi. Indian Foreign Minister Dr S. Jaishankar, whose meeting with Marco Rubio marked the latter’s first bilateral engagement after taking office, also held a press conference, where he dismissed the possibility of resuming trade with Pakistan any time soon. Rubio’s tenure began with a clear focus on countering China’s expanding influence, underscoring the US reliance on India as a strategic counterbalance in the Asia-Pacific region. On his first day in office, Rubio’s multilateral meetings prioritised the Quad nations — India, Japan, and Australia. US media outlets interpreted these moves as a sig...

Indian Foreign Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday said that there had been no talks on trade between his country and Pakistan, nor had there been any proposals to resume the flow of commerce. Delhi’s top diplomat made the remarks while fielding questions from reporters at the Indian embassy in Washington, where he had travelled to attend the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. In response to a question about trade with Pakistan, Jaishankar said: “After last year, there have been no talks with Pakistan about trade, nor has any initiative come forward from their side.” He further said about the situation between the neighbours: “We never stopped trade. Any steps taken to stop trade with India were taken from their side in 2019 . Our concern from the beginning was that they never granted us MFN (Most Favoured Nation) status, even though we granted it to them.” Pakistan, under the government of then-prime minister Imran Khan, had downgraded diplomatic rel...

THE guns have gone silent in Gaza with the ceasefire coming into effect, as life limps back to what is considered normal in the enclave, devastated by incessant Israeli bombing for the past 15 months. But the war is far from over with the Zionist regime still not willing to end its occupation. It’s only the first phase of the three-stage truce process that is being implemented; there are still questions about Israel fulfilling its promise of complete withdrawal. An eerie calm prevails, with the people of Gaza continuing to live under siege. Two Palestinian men, including a teenager, were killed by Israeli forces hours after the ceasefire started. The Israeli prime minister has threatened to resume military operations if the second phase of the truce doesn’t work. There is still no mention of an independent Palestinian state. It is a tentative peace with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returning to the rubble that was once their home. There are still dead bodies buried undern...