Pakistan, Qatar vow to sustain US-Iran peace momentum as Hormuz diplomacy fans out across Gulf
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani spoke by telephone on Wednesday and expressed satisfaction on the opening round of US-Iran technical negotiations, pledging to sustain diplomatic momentum as the two co-mediating nations prepared to rejoin talks in Switzerland that are expected to resume early next week.
Pakistan-Iran ties deepen after Pezeshkian visit, but sanctions keep flagship projects on hold
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Wednesday that progress on a major gas pipeline and other economic ventures with Iran will move no faster than the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran, tempering expectations that a landmark visit by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian this week would quickly translate into concrete commercial gains.
Coalition partners demand apology, defence minister’s resignation over Kashmir identity slur
ISLAMABAD: The governing coalition showed rare public signs of strain on Wednesday as the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party demanded to know why a senior federal minister remained in his post after asserting that residents of the protest-hit Azad Jammu and Kashmir town of Rawalakot were not Kashmiris — remarks that also drew condemnation from a major religious party and a formal apology from a former prime minister on the minister’s behalf.
BITES
- Mobile broadband services restored
- LPG prices rise by 29.2pc for February
- Cabinet swells to 75 members
- Govt allows TCP to import wheat via all ports
- World Bank approves $200 million in loan for Punjab’s farm development project
- PM Sharif’s party decides to get tough on hecklers
- Apex court overturns PHC ban on poultry exports
- Shahbaz Gill declined bail
- IHC disposes of PTI employees petition against FIA notices
- Rupee plumbs new lows against dollar
- Punjab gets new policy chief
- Loans under Mera Ghar scheme to continue
- Senior army official shot dead in Balochistan rescue operation
- Bani Gala Firing: Man shot, wounded by PTI leader’s gunman
- Turkish commander calls on CJCSC
- Inquiry commission to probe reasons of energy crisis
- ANP set to fly Sharif’s coop
- Member Communist Party of China calls on COAS
- CHE to be renamed, HQ shifted to Karachi
- Pakistan to import high-quality Afghan coal in rupees
- IHC chucks plea to interfere with legislation
- Saudi Arabia confers King Abdulaziz medal on General Bajwa
- Interior Minister no-show at drugs case hearing
- Pakistan hopes early, successful visit by FATF team
- Pakistan commiserates with Afghanistan over quake, flood destruction
Barclays upgrades Pakistan dollar bonds to overweight, cites resilient external position
ISLAMABAD: Barclays has upgraded Pakistan’s dollar bonds to overweight, reversing a downgrade it issued in May, as the British bank pointed to improving oil market dynamics and what it described as an increasingly resilient external position, according to a research note cited by Bloomberg on Wednesday.
French climber dies in K-6 avalanche; two teammates survive
ISLAMABAD: A French climber died after an avalanche struck a three-member international team attempting to scale K-6, a 7,282-metre peak in Pakistan’s remote northern Karakoram range, a tour operator said on Wednesday, the latest fatality to hit the country’s high-altitude climbing season.