ISLAMABAD: The federal government has announced it will mount a legal challenge in the Supreme Court against a new law passed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet that would hand the provincial government sweeping new powers over the police force, in an escalating confrontation between Islamabad and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf administration in Peshawar.
Aamir Ashraf
Four refiners sign $5 billion upgrade deal after seven-year delay
ISLAMABAD: Four of Pakistan’s five oil refiners signed binding agreements with the government on Thursday to spend roughly $5 billion over five years upgrading their plants, ending a stalemate that stretched nearly seven years and blocked one of the country’s largest planned industrial investments.
Police officer martyred, three hurt in Peshawar gun battle
PESHAWAR: A police officer has been killed and three of his colleagues wounded after gunmen opened fire on a counter-terrorism raid on the outskirts of Peshawar, in an operation that authorities say thwarted a major suicide bombing plot.
Rangers deployed, motorways shut, Islamabad sealed ahead of PTI march demanding Imran Khan’s release
ISLAMABAD: The government has authorised the deployment of Pakistan Rangers across Islamabad Capital Territory and several districts of Punjab, running from 20 September to 5 October, in anticipation of a nationwide protest called by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party founded by the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan. The move comes as major motorways linking the capital to the rest of the country remain closed, supporters and relatives of Khan are held in detention, and the government and opposition trade accusations over secret talks that neither side will fully confirm.
PM Sharif meets Iran’s president in New York to save collapsed peace deal
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sat down with Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in New York on Thursday, resuming a diplomatic effort that has become one of the few remaining threads connecting Washington and Tehran after months of war, air strikes and a naval blockade that shows no sign of lifting.
Power utility K-Electric’s rate battle ends in defeat
ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority won a bid to keep in place a steep cut to K-Electric Ltd.’s power tariff, a decision that preserves close to 200 billion rupees in savings for the government and deals a setback to a utility already grappling with a bank-led liquidity squeeze.
Islamabad prepares for a confrontation with Imran Khan’s party
ISLAMABAD: Islamabad is bracing for its biggest security operation in years, with tens of thousands of police officers, hundreds of shipping containers and a arsenal of riot equipment being mobilised across the federal capital and neighbouring Punjab ahead of a planned opposition march that the government has vowed, in the words of one insider, to “fix… for good”.
Pakistan hits 10 targets inside Afghanistan in retaliation for drone incursion
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has carried out air and drone strikes against 10 locations inside Afghanistan, in the second cross-border military action in three days and the latest escalation in a rapidly deteriorating conflict with the Taliban government in Kabul.
PM Sharif to meet Iran’s President Pezeshkian in New York push for US talks
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s attempts to broker a path back to talks between Washington and Tehran gathered momentum on Wednesday, with diplomatic sources indicating that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif could meet Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian as soon as Thursday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
PM Sharif tells IMF chief economy is shifting to recovery
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in New York on Wednesday, pressing his government’s case that the economy is shifting from stabilization to recovery just as an IMF review team opened talks in Karachi on the country’s next loan tranche.