Daily News Pakistan

A major document cache leak has revealed Pakistan government’s internal conundrum on managing relations with the United States while trying to keep healthy ties with China. Record of an important discussion between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar was leaked wherein the two, along with an assistant, were talking about Pakistan’s ties with the United States. The record of the discussion on crucial foreign policy, which has been named ‘Discord Leaks’, also reveals the premier’s conversation on the United Nations’ voting on the Ukraine and Russia conflict, according to the Washington Post. During the discussion, an assistant advised the prime minister that supporting the resolution could jeopardise Pakistan’s trade and energy deals with Russia and would give the impression of a change in Pakistan’s position. As per the leaked documents, Khar said that Pakistan should avoid appeasing the West and that the country’s desire to maint...

Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said all institutions of the country should work in their domain. He said that the Judiciary has no mandate to pressure political parties to hold talks. Addressing a press conference at his residence in Sialkot, the PML-N firebrand said there is no greater honor than the chief justice for the Supreme Court. When it comes to the judiciary, it is a matter of public trust, he remarked. He further said that during the last few months, matter took a turn for the worse, and former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar went too far in his enmity with PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif. Saqib Nisar admitted on TV about his son’s recent audio leak, the minister said. He also held PTI Chairman Imran Khan responsible for the crises that the country is faced with today, adding the former premier has fixed a rate list for party tickets. Not only Saqib Nisar, but the PTI leadership has also been exposed, Asif exclaimed, adding that staying away from power is...

People who get influenza could be six times more susceptible to having a heart attack in the days following a flu diagnosis, a new study from the Netherlands has found. The study’s conclusions were scheduled to be presented on April 18 at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases in Copenhagen, Denmark, as reported by Medscape. The lead researcher, Dr. Annemarijn de Boer with the Julius Center for Life Sciences and Primary Care at the University Medical Center Utrecht, analyzed test results from 16 labs in the Netherlands, as well as medical and death records. Of 26,221 cases of influenza between the years 2008 and 2019, 401 people experienced at least one heart attack within a year of the diagnosis, the report said. Additionally, people had a 6.16 times higher likelihood of having a heart attack in the week after getting the flu compared to the year before or after, the researchers found. However, when excluding the deaths that occurred outside t...

President Dr Arif Alvi on Sunday returned the National Accountability (Amendment) Bill, 2023 to Parliament, stating that previous amendments to the accountability laws were sub judice before the Supreme Court (SC). Earlier this month, the bill, dubbed “part two of NRO-2” by the opposition, had sailed through the Senate without being referred to the standing committee concerned. The bill, which had already been passed by the National Assembly, was moved in the Senate by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar amid a protest by senators belonging to the PTI. The legislation — proposed by the government in March — not only empowers the NAB chairman to transfer graft cases involving corruption of less than Rs500 million to the relevant agency, authority or department but also closes the pending inquiries and investigations where they think no case is made out. In a tweet today, the President’s Office said: “The president sent back the bill to Parliament under Article 75 (president’s assent to...

In the latest mass shooting to hit the United States, a gunman shot dead five Hondurans including an eight-year-old child at a house in Texas, officials said on Saturday. Investigators believe the gunman had been firing his AR-15-style gun in a neighbouring yard when the victims asked him to stop, as they were trying to get a baby to sleep, US media reported. Sheriff Greg Capers of San Jacinto County, which is north of Houston, desc­ribed a horrifying scene when authorities went to the residence after receiving a call about “harassment” around 11:30pm on Friday. The victims, aged from eight to 40 years old, were strewn from the front door through the house to an inside bedroom, where two of them, both women , were found lying on top of two children who survived the massacre. Deputies found “several others in critical condition from multiple gunshot wounds,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. Three were hospitalised. “All the victims were from Honduras,” Capers told re...

Scientists from Nasa — in a major development in space exploration activities — have been able to extract oxygen from regolith (lunar soil), which will allow space explorers to use the surface of the moon as a launch pad for future activities. According to Nasa, a Houston team at the Johnson Space Center separated life-sustaining oxygen from a lunar soil simulation with the help of a high-powered laser to create a carbothermal reaction. For the first time ever, the oxygen was removed within a vacuum environment. "This is a big step for developing architecture to build sustainable human bases on other planets," says Nasa engineer The Carbothermal Reduction Demonstration (CaRD) experiment could be a base for producing oxygen gas for breathing alongside its uses for transport propellers. "Our team proved the CaRD reactor would survive the lunar surface and successfully extract oxygen," Nasa engineer Anastasia Ford said. She further stated: "This is a big ste...

Glazer family, owners of Manchester United, are in discussions with both parties, with Sheikh Jassim emerging as main competitor to Ratcliffe. Manchester United is at the centre of a bidding war as Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and Jim Ratcliffe submit their final offers to buy the Premier League club. The Glazer family, current owners of Manchester United, are in discussions with both parties, with Sheikh Jassim emerging as the main competitor to Ratcliffe. Sheikh Jassim has reportedly submitted an offer of over £5 billion ($6.2 billion), while Ratcliffe's improved bid has yet to be made public. According to the media reports Sheikh Jassim's bid for 100% control of the club comes with a promise of significant additional funding for transfers and infrastructure. Part of the planned spending includes revamping Old Trafford Stadium and overhauling the club's training facilities. On the other hand, Ratcliffe, the founder of INEOS chemical company, reportedly wants a ...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday directed the authorities concerned to take timely and effective measures to improve the power transmission and load management systems during the summer season. He said this during a meeting with Minister for Power Division Khurram Dastgir who called on him in Lahore today. During the meeting, the Minister for Power Division briefed the Prime Minister about on-going projects in power sector. He directed to complete work on the new transmission line at earliest so that every possible facility to be provided to consumers in this summer season.

Saudi Arabia and Iran will reopen embassies in each other’s capitals “within days”, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has said in a sign of warming relations after the two countries closed their missions seven years ago. Announcement comes after the two countries agreed to restore diplomatic relations during talks in China last month. Speaking at a news conference in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday, Amir-Abdollahian did not give specific dates for the reopening of the embassies, which closed in 2016. The two countries reached an agreement in China earlier last month to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of tensions. “During the last phone call between the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia on Eid al-Fitr, we agreed to work in the next coming days on the reopening of the Iranian and Saudi embassies in Tehran and Riyadh,” Amir-Abdollahian said, according to an official Arabic translation. The relationship started d...

Three civilians were wounded when Israeli air strikes targeted a site near the Syrian city of Homs early Saturday, state media reported, with a war monitor saying a Hezbollah munitions depot was hit. During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions. While Israel rarely comments on the strikes it carries out on Syria, it has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-foe Iran to extend its footprint in the war-torn country. “At around 00:50 (2150 GMT)... the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack with a number of missiles, from the direction of north Lebanon, targeting several positions in the vicinity of the city of Homs,” according to international media reports. “Three civilians were wounded and a civilian petrol station caught fire and a number of fuel tanks and trucks were burned,” it said, adding that Syria...

Former Punjab chief minister and PTI President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi's son on Saturday moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the late-night raid at his father's Lahore residence. PTI President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and 18 others have been booked in a case of pelting stones at and violence on the police during a raid of the anti-corruption department on his residence late on Friday night. The case has been registered at Lahore’s Ghalib Market police station under 13 provisions, including terrorism and murder. On Friday night, police and an anti-corruption team carried out an unsuccessful raid at Elahi’s residence to arrest him at around 11pm. The Zahoor Palace was searched three to four times, but the PTI official could not be found. Police say the case has been registered on the application of anti-corruption CO. It claimed that an anti-corruption team raided Parvez Elahi’s residence to arrest him when 40 to 50 people present inside the house pelted them with stones. ...

Members of the ruling coalition and opposition PTI on Friday resumed talks on holding elections, following the initiation of a much-awaited dialogue at the Parliament House a day ago. The second round of negotiations is under way in committee room number 3 of the Parliament House. The opposition delegation — formed on Wednesday night — consists of PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry and Senator Ali Zafar. Meanwhile, the PML-N’s Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Azam Nazeer Tarar and Sardar Ayaz Sadiq along with PPP’s Senator Yousuf Raza Gilani and Syed Naveed Qamar are representing the government. Ahead of the second round of negotiations today, PTI Chairman Imran Khan — during an informal conversation with journalists at the Islamabad High Court — said that he had requested Fawad and Qureshi to initiate talks with the government only if the ruling party was prepared to immediately dissolve the assemblies and hold elections. He added, “The...

The government on Friday approved an increase of up to 20 per cent in medicine retail prices, with the rise for essential drugs capped at a maximum of 14pc as decades-high inflation grips the country. The decision, taken in the cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), was due for months to meet the demands of drug importers and manufacturers, whose associations were demanding an across-the-board 39pc rise, warning that the industry could otherwise collapse. The finance ministry said medicine prices could be reviewed again after three months if the rupee appreciated, adding that “no increase under this category” would be granted in the next financial year. The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Association criticised the increase, which it said was way lower than it had expected. Inflation clocked in at 35pc in March, fuelled by a depreciating currency, a rollback in subsidies and the imposition of higher tariffs to secure a bailout package of $1.1 billion from the Inte...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will undertake a visit to the United Kingdom next week to attend the coronation of King Charles III, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Friday. Charles, 74, became king after the death of Queen Elizabeth last year in September. As per royal tradition, a British monarch’s coronation takes place some months later, after national mourning and intense preparations. King Charles III’s coronation ceremony will be held at London’s Westminster Abbey on May 6. The event is expected to be attended by heads of state from around the world, including Ireland, France, Spain, Belgium, Japan, Hungary and Australia. Earlier, Buckingham Palace said that Prince Harry will also be attending the coronation but without his wife Meghan. The announcement came after weeks of uncertainty surrounding the couple’s attendance, who quit royal duties in early 2020. In a press briefing today, FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said: “Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif will undert...

BBC Chairman Richard Sharp resigned on Friday after an independent report found he had breached public appointment rules by not disclosing a potential conflict of interest in his role in securing a $1 million loan for the then-prime minister, Boris Johnson. His exit comes at a time of heightened political scrutiny of the British public broadcaster. A high-profile row with highly paid presenter Gary Lineker over neutrality dominated headlines in Britain last month. Sharp, a former Goldman Sachs banker who became BBC chairman in 2021, had been under pressure since February when a committee of lawmakers said he had made “significant errors of judgement” in failing to declare his involvement in the loan. Sharp said he had agreed to stay on until the end of June to give the government time to find a successor to lead the broadcaster, funded by a licence fee paid by TV-watching households. The investigation, initiated by the public appointments watchdog, examined the way in which Sharp...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday asserted that the country was “on its way” to overcoming the myriad of economic challenges it has been facing for the past few months because of the “tough decisions” taken by the government at the cost of its political capital. Addressing the passing out parade of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Academy Asghar Khan in Risalpur, the premier said, “Let me assure you that we are making all efforts to bring our economy back on track. Thanks to tough decisions at the cost of our political asset, we are on the way to overcome these challenges soon.” The incumbent coalition government has been making tough policy decisions in the past few months —such as fuel price hikes, increase in gas rates and rising living costs leading to all-time high inflation — to meet the conditions for a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund. (IMF). Due to the resulting criticism, the government has been wary of the IMF-mandated tough decisions ahead o...

The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Thursday finally sat on the negotiating table to discuss the poll date following Supreme Court's orders. In the first round of talks held at the Parliament House's Committee Room Number 3, both sides informed each other about their top leadership's stance. The government's delegation comprises Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Yousaf Raza Gilani, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, and Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar. The opposition's delegation included PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry, and the party's top legal expert Barrister Ali Zafar. The delegation informed the government about PTI Chairman Imran Khan's stance on elections and about how the elections should be conducted. In his speech in the National Assembly earlier today, when he secured a vote of confidence, Prime Minister Sh...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has managed to secure a vote of confidence from the National Assembly. Around 180 lawmakers reposed confidence in the prime minister. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party and the foreign minister, tabled the resolution, on which 180 Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) voted yes, as opposed to 174 when Shehbaz was elected as the prime minister in April last year. The prime minister took the vote of confidence after the assembly rejected the money bill tabled by the government for providing funds to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for holding polls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — on the orders of the Supreme Court. When the bill was rejected, apparently for the first time in history, the top court — hearing a petition seeking polls simultaneously — implied that the prime minister did not have the confidence of the house. In its order, the SC stated: "In terms of the system of parliamentary democracy e...

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam on Thursday put New Zealand to bat first after winning the toss in the opening game of the five-match ODI series played at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi. Babar Azam said the pitch will be helpful later in the day for batting while NZ captain Tom Latham endorsed Pakistan's decision, saying they will also bowl first had they won the toss. The ODI series offers both sides the opportunity to feel out each other´s strengths and weaknesses ahead of the World Cup in India in October-November. The Black Caps shocked the home side by squaring a preceding five-match Twenty20 series 2-2 despite missing eight players -- including skipper Kane Williamson -- due to the ongoing Indian Premier League or injury. Pakistan have won five of the seven ODI series that Azam has captained. His two losses came against England in 2021 and New Zealand in January this year. But New Zealand boast recent dominance over Pakistan. Of the last six ODI series between them...

Turkiye on Thursday rejected “baseless claims” about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s health as rumors speak that he suffered a heart attack and is hospitalized, and thus just days before the elections on May 14. “We categorically reject such baseless claims regarding President Erdogan’s health. The President will attend nuclear power plant opening via videoconference,” the country’s Communications Director, Fahrettin Altun, said on Twitter. “No amount of disinformation can dispute the fact that the Turkish people stand with their leader and Erdogan and his AK (Justice and Development) Party are set to win the May 14 elections,” Altun added. The directorate’s center for combating disinformation also said the claims shared on some social media accounts that President Erdogan “had a heart attack and was hospitalized” did not reflect the truth, report state-run news agency.​​​​​​​ During a television interview a few days ago, Erdogan felt unwell, resulting into rumors regar...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has conveyed best wishes to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his recovery from illness. In a tweet on Thursday, the Prime Minister said he feels greatly relieved to learn that his brother President Tayyip Erdogan has recovered from his illness by the grace of Allah Almighty. Greatly relieved to learn that my brother H.E. President @RTErdogan has recovered from his illness by the grace of Allah Almighty. My deepest prayers & best wishes are with him for a complete recovery & good health. He symbolises the essence of brotherhood between our two… https://t.co/QfsCX2rgmH — Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) April 27, 2023 He said Tayyip Erdogan symbolizes the essence of brotherhood between Pakistani and Turk nations. Shehbaz Sharif prayed for the Turk President's complete recovery and good health.

The Supreme Court on Thursday resumed the hearing of the election suo moto case as the deadlock between the government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf persisted over talks on polls. During the proceedings, the CJP remarked that the Supreme Court could not force the government to hold negotiations with the opposition. The hearing resumed after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rejected the proposal floated by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani regarding the formation of a 10-member special parliamentary committee with equal representation from both sides to start a dialogue to end the impasse. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umer Ata Bandial will also hear citizen Sardar Kashif Khan's plea in the open court seeking elections across the country on the same date. The government is expected to inform the apex court about the progress in the implementation of its orders of holding the political dialogue, in today's hearing. The apex court had before E...

A ship carrying 37 Pakistani nationals from Sudan — where fighting between the army and paramilitaries has killed and wounded hundreds — arrived in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah on Wednesday, the Foreign Office (FO) said. “Evacuation plan for Pakistani nationals in Sudan continues. The ship carrying 37 Pakistani nationals from Port Sudan arrives in Jeddah,” it said in a tweet. “They were received by CG in Jeddah, Khalid Majid on arrival at Jeddah Port. We are grateful to the Government of KSA for its support & hospitality,” the FO added. According to the Saudi Arabia Foreign Ministry, the boat with 1,687 civilians from more than 50 countries arrived in the kingdom today, which is the largest rescue effort by the Gulf state to date. The group was “transported by one of the Kingdom’s ships, and the Kingdom was keen to provide all the basic needs of foreign nationals in preparation for their departure,” it said in a statement. In another statement, the FO said that “another convoy of 2...

Founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that WhatsApp is finally rolling out the option for users to log into the messaging app from more than one phone. Taking to Facebook, Zuckerberg announced: “Starting today, you can log into the same WhatsApp account on up to four phones.” To date, WhatsApp users have only been able to use one WhatsApp account on one phone — a setting that users have always complained about. “Your WhatsApp account can only be verified with one registered phone number. If you have a dual SIM phone, please note that you still must choose one number to verify with WhatsApp. There is no option to have a verified WhatsApp account with two different phone numbers,” the WhatsApp FAQs. However, currently, users can connect WhatsApp on the web, android tablets, companion phones, and other devices by linking up to four devices to their primary phone at a time. According to WhatsApp, the new feature — which will allow users’ messages to be syn...

A member of Iran’s influential clerical body has been assassinated in an armed attack in the country’s northern province of Mazandaran. Ayatollah Abbasali Soleimani, a member of the Assembly of Experts and also a former representative of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan, died in hospital on Wednesday after being shot at a bank in the city of Babolsar, Mehr news agency reported. General Governor of Mazandaran Province, Seyyed Mahmoud Hosseinipour, told the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) television news channel that an investigation is underway to find out the circumstances surrounding the deadly incident and the motive behind the assassination. The Assembly of Experts elects and oversees the activities of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and is in a position of authority to either appoint or dismiss the Leader. Members are directly elected to office by the peop...

Middle-order batter Iftikhar Ahmed has achieved the career-best position in the latest ICC T20I rankings after his blistering knocks in the recently-concluded PAK vs NZ T20I series. Iftikhar moved six places to equal 38th and is the third-highest-ranked Pakistan batter after Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan on the current list of T20I batters. The right-hander scored 36 from 22 in the final T20I on Monday while he baton-charged Kiwi bowlers in the third match when he smashed a quickfire 24-ball 60. The visitors survived Iftikhar’s brilliance to win that match before beating Pakistan in the final match to level the five-game series 2-2. Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Mark Chapman, who was the leading run-getter in the PAK vs NZ T20I series, was awarded for his sensational form as he moved up 45 places to a career-best 35th overall. Chapman hit a match-winning hundred in that fifth game of the series to help New Zealand draw the series. Wicket-keeper batter Rizwan, however, retains his se...

Two Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred in gun battle with terrorists in Khyber district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the military’s media wing said. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said A firefight broke out between Pakistani security forces and terrorists in the general area of Tirah, Khyber District on April 25 as a result of which two army personnel embraced martyrdom. According to ISPR the exchange resulted in killing two terrorists and injuring four others. Additionally, weapons and ammunition were recovered from the slain terrorists. However, the intense exchange of fire also led to the tragic loss of two brave soldiers. According to military’s media wing Sepoy Waqas Ali Shah, 26, and resident of Charsadda, and Sepoy Basit Ali, 24, and resident of Peshawar, both fought courageously before making the ultimate sacrifice for their country, embracing shahadat. Following the firefight, security forces carried out a sanitization process in the area to ensure that any othe...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is chairing a meeting of the ruling alliance today (Wednesday) before negotiations with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on the Supreme Court’s directions. Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and other leaders are attending the meeting. Attorney general for Pakistan and federal ministers are also attending the meeting. According to media reports, the meeting is being briefed by the legal team on the election fund case and the negotiations with PTI. Earlier today, The News had reported that there are chances of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supermo Nawaz Sharif — who is currently in Saudi Arabia — attending the meeting virtually. During the last meeting of the coalition partners, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari suggested dialogue with the PTI but the PDM chief Fazl outright rejected the prop...

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to fast track the development projects for overseas Pakistanis. He was chairing a meeting on CDA's projects for overseas Pakistanis in Islamabad on Wednesday. The Finance Minister directed the CDA to hold balloting of Nilore Heights-1 project which is exclusively developed for overseas Pakistanis before the 8th of next month. The meeting was briefed on the provision of commercial and residential plots for overseas Pakistanis on open auction basis. It was informed that in the next phase, registration for plots in C-14 and C-16 sectors for overseas Pakistanis will commence and special facilitation desks have been established to facilitate the overseas Pakistanis. Ishaq Dar directed that for auction of commercial plots, incentives should be extended to those investors who pay the amount in US dollars so that foreign exchange reserve could be further bolstered. He also directed to expedite work on Ku...

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari while reiterating the government’s commitment to the welfare of overseas Pakistanis, on Tuesday said that Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued to lead in the relief and rescue of Pakistanis in Sudan as today, another convoy of 211 Pakistanis dispatched from Khartoum, arrived in Port Sudan. “With the latest convoy, the total number of Pakistanis who have been evacuated to safety has reached 700. Ambassador Meer Bahrose Regi’s team in Khartoum and Port Sudan are working day and night to facilitate the stay of Pakistanis who are still in Sudan until their evacuation to Pakistan,” Foreign Office Spokesperson quoted the foreign minister in a press statement. The foreign minister, in his statement, further said that they remained engaged with the friendly countries in the region especially with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to facilitate the evacuation process. He also appreciated the hard work of Pakistan missions in the region and the entire fore...

United States President Joe Biden has officially launched his campaign for re-election in 2024, becoming the Democratic frontrunner in a race that could pit him for a second time against Republican contender Donald Trump. Biden’s announcement in a video on Tuesday came on the fourth anniversary of the start of his first successful presidential bid. A majority of Democrats would back Biden, 80, against a Republican challenger in next year’s election, a recent poll found. But the Democratic president faces some of the lowest approval ratings of his tenure so far, and his age – Biden is currently the oldest person to ever hold the highest US office – has spurred questions about his re-election prospects. Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, is betting his first-term legislative achievements and more than 50 years of experience in Washington will count for more than concerns over his age. He faces a smooth path to winning his party’s nomination with no serious Democrat...

Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Ahmed Sharif conducted his maiden press conference on Tuesday, stressing that if India tried any misadventures, then Pakistan Army will give a befitting response. The ISPR DG said that India had committed several ceasefire violations along the LoC this year and Pakistan had also taken down six Indian spy quadcopters. He noted that Pakistan had taken United Nations observers to the Line of Control (LoC) several times, while India had not done the same. At the start of the news conference — his first after taking over the post — he said the purpose was to elaborate on the army's professional activities, including analysing its counterterrorism operations. "The contacts between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Baloch [insurgent] organisations and foreign intelligence agencies has been proven." Pakistan's civil and military agencies took great steps against terrorists, he said. Givi...

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has asked the FBR to enhance its efforts to achieve the true tax potential of the country. He made the remarks while chairing a meeting in Islamabad to review the performance of the FBR. Ishaq Dar extended his full support to the FBR in performance of its duties for revenue collection. As per a statement released by the Ministry of Finance, FBR Chairman Asim Ahmad gave a detailed presentation on the FBR’s revenue targets and performance for the period July 2022 to March,2023. “It was expressed that FBR will make all out efforts to meet its targets in remaining months of the financial year,” read the statement. Dar expressed satisfaction with the FBR and extended his full support to help it perform its revenue collection duties while maintaining that the FBR team needs to enhance efforts to unlock the country’s true tax potential. SAPM on Finance Tariq Bajwa, SAPM on Revenue Tariq Mehmood Pasha, Chairman FBR, and other senior officers from the Finance ...

Pakistan has called on the United Nations Security Council to take “bold decisions” to secure the compliance of States with the U.N. Charter’s principles and its own decisions such as to grant the right of self-determination to the people of Kashmir and Palestine. “The Council has various means available to it, under the Charter, to secure such compliance,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the 15-member Council on Monday. Speaking in an open day-long debate on ‘effective multilateralism”, the Pakistani envoy suggested that the UN Secretary-General should prepare an annual review of situations on Council’s agenda where its resolutions were being violated or remain unimplemented. “Protestations of commitment to the UN Charter ring hollow when no action is taken to redress these blatant violations of the UN Charter and resolutions of the Security Council on the two issues on the agenda of the Security Council,” he added The debate was sponsored by Russia, which holds the rotating Council...