ISLAMABAD: Two major opposition forces moved into open alignment on Sunday, with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf declaring its support for Jamaat-e-Islami’s month-long campaign against a fuel levy, as authorities in Islamabad and Punjab responded to the prospect of simultaneous mass marches on the capital with a sweeping security clampdown.
Aamir Ashraf
India’s women follow men’s lead in refusing Asia Cup trophy from ACC chief Naqvi
India’s women cricketers refused to collect the Asia Cup trophy from the head of Asian cricket’s governing body on Sunday night, plunging the presentation ceremony in Dubai into confusion and repeating a snub delivered by their male counterparts a year earlier.
Methane blast kills four, injures five at Balochistan coal mine
A methane gas explosion collapsed a coal mine in southwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing four workers and injuring five others, the latest in a string of fatal accidents that has drawn attention to weak safety enforcement in the country’s coal-mining sector.
Sharif pledges solidarity with Saudi Arabia as Houthi strikes, pipeline attack rattle region
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif telephoned Saudi Arabia’s crown prince on Sunday to condemn a string of attacks that battered the kingdom’s energy sector over the preceding week, as Riyadh grappled with both a missile and drone barrage from Yemen’s Houthi rebels and a still-unclaimed drone strike on one of its most important oil pipelines.
Pakistan unveils fuel subsidy for bikers as Mideast war drives up pump prices
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif rolled out a targeted fuel subsidy for motorcyclists, rickshaw drivers and small-car owners on Sunday, moving to cushion low-income commuters as the widening conflict between the U.S. and Iran pushes global oil prices higher.
Pakistan’s whitewash in England lays bare a crisis years in the making
KARACHI: Pakistan’s cricketers left England on Saturday with the emphatic misery of a 3-0 series whitewash and, almost despite themselves, one image that will outlast the scoreline: a 21-year-old fast bowler from Mardan, on Test debut, launching nine sixes into the Edgbaston evening as his side’s innings defeat turned, however briefly, into hope.
Pakistan condemns drone strikes on Saudi pipeline as Middle East oil war widens
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday delivered a pointed condemnation of the drone strikes that tore through Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline this week, casting the attacks as a breach of international law and pledging renewed solidarity with a kingdom now facing simultaneous threats to its two principal export routes.
Pakistan presses UN to fast-track digital-asset rules, leaning on its own turnaround
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan told United Nations member states to stop deliberating over digital assets and start building the regulatory architecture to govern them, with the head of the country’s crypto authority casting the choice in stark terms: govern the technology now, or be governed by it later.
Balochistan chief minister rules out talks with militants, backs new provinces on administrative lines
QUETTA: Balochistan’s chief minister has ruled out any negotiations with those waging an armed insurgency against the Pakistani state, declaring that the province’s security forces would continue their campaign against militancy until, in his words, the “last terrorist” had been eliminated.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah addressing a presser in this undated photo courtesy of APP.
Pakistan’s new-provinces debate escalates as coalition tensions simmer
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s fragile ruling coalition sought to project unity at the weekend even as a fractious debate over redrawing the country’s provincial map threatened to expose deepening rifts between its two main partners.