QUETTA: Five security personnel, including two officers, and one customs official were martyred overnight on Monday when militants stormed a customs facility in the country’s restive southwestern Balochistan province, part of a wave of violence that left 21 terrorists killed across two districts, the military said on Tuesday.
top-politics
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey formalise defence pact as ‘Makkah Defence Alliance’
ISLAMABAD: Three nations bound by a first-of-its-kind mutual defense pledge took their first concrete steps on Monday toward building the institutions of what officials are now calling the “Makkah Defence Alliance,” with Pakistan set to supply the bloc’s inaugural secretary general and Saudi Arabia hosting its headquarters.
PM Sharif departs for Kyrgyzstan as regional bloc marks 25th year
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif left for Kyrgyzstan on Monday for a three-day visit that will place him at the same summit table as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the first time since the two nuclear-armed neighbours fought a brief conflict last year, part of a gathering of regional leaders marking a quarter-century of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Govt disputes reports on Imran Khan’s prison conditions, medical care
ISLAMABAD: The government on Saturday moved to counter what it described as misleading foreign media coverage of the imprisonment of former prime minister Imran Khan, issuing a detailed rebuttal that touched on his living conditions, family access, and a medical dispute now before the country’s Supreme Court.
Pakistan warns of ‘profound consequences’ as India keeps water treaty frozen
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top diplomat delivered a pointed warning to an international audience on Friday, cautioning that any effort to strip his country of water it is owed under a six-decade-old treaty with India would carry grave consequences for peace across South Asia.
After 14 newborns die in PIMS fire, questions turn to negligence and safety
ISLAMABAD: A committee appointed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif began investigating on Thursday what caused a fire to tear through a hospital nursery here, killing 14 newborns and leaving a nation searching for someone to blame.
Rangers soldier killed in ambush during Kashmir road-clearing operation
MUZAFFARABAD: A paramilitary soldier was shot dead and a second wounded on Wednesday when gunmen opened fire on security forces conducting a road-clearing operation in the Sarsawa-Thorar-Thal area, officials said, the latest episode of violence in a region that has been convulsed by months of unrest.
PTI refiles contempt petition over Imran Khan’s diverted hospital transfer
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan registrar’s office on Tuesday accepted a refiled contempt of court petition accusing senior government officials of defying a court order that directed jailed former prime minister Imran Khan be transferred to a private hospital for medical treatment, after an earlier version of the filing was returned for procedural deficiencies.
New Kashmir assembly sworn in as PML-N extends its majority
MUZAFFARABAD: The new Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly took shape on Monday, as outgoing Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar administered the oath of office to 38 newly elected lawmakers, capping a bruising three-phase election season that has left the territory’s two dominant parties further estranged.
Dar heads to London as hostage crisis with Somali pirates drags on
ISLAMABAD: Ishaq Dar, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, will travel to the United Kingdom this week for a five-day diplomatic mission that will put him face to face with the officials he hopes can help free ten Pakistani sailors still held captive by Somali pirates more than four months after their ship was seized.