ISLAMABAD: At least 21 people have died and dozens more were injured in rain-related disasters across Pakistan’s northwest and southwest since late last week, officials said, as a new wave of storms threatened to bring widespread flooding, landslides and structural collapses to much of the country in the coming days.
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India plots false-flag border operation using Pakistani detainees to mask diplomatic reversals
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security officials said on Monday that Indian authorities are preparing a false-flag operation against Pakistan that would press innocent Pakistani detainees held in Indian prisons — including Kashmiris who crossed the border inadvertently — into service as unwitting participants in a staged border provocation.
Pakistan’s top leaders hold talks on security and economic strain amid regional tensions
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday to review the country’s national security situation and the array of economic and energy challenges confronting Pakistan, the President’s Secretariat said.
Kuwait assures Pakistan of full diesel and jet fuel deliveries
ISLAMABAD: Kuwait has pledged to provide full logistical support for diesel and jet fuel shipments to Pakistan, ending a supply impasse caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran.
Subsidised fuel for rickshaws, bikes in pipeline
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz said the government is moving to protect lower- and middle-income Pakistanis from the impact of higher fuel prices triggered by the global energy shock following the war involving Iran.
PCB fines Naseem Shah Rs20 million over social media post on Maryam Nawaz
LAHORE Fast bowler Naseem Shah was on Monday handed a Rs20 million fine by the Pakistan Cricket Board for breaching multiple clauses of his central contract after a social media post that criticised Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.
A court acquits two lawmakers and six others in 2018 triple murder of political family in Sindh
KARACHI: A court on Monday acquitted all eight defendants — including two members of the Sindh provincial assembly — in the 2018 assassination of a former union council chairman from the Pakistan Peoples Party and his two sons, ruling that prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence to secure convictions.
FM Dar, injured in a fall, heads to Beijing to consult on month-old US-Iran conflict
ISLAMABAD: The deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, will leave Tuesday for an official visit to China even though he suffered a hairline fracture in his shoulder the day before, the Foreign Office said Monday, a move that officials described as a measure of how seriously Islamabad takes its deepening role in trying to end the fighting between the United States and Iran.
A $1.2bn IMF deal that cannot hide Pakistan’s deeper failings
When the International Monetary Fund signalled its staff-level agreement with Pakistan on 27 March, the timing was no coincidence. It came on the same day that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif overruled the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and blocked a rise in domestic fuel prices despite soaring international costs. Four weeks into a conflict that has upended energy markets across the Gulf, the Fund’s move looks less like business as usual and more like reluctant recognition that geopolitics has rewritten the script.
Washington and Tehran Should Take the Exit Still Available
The United States-Israeli war on Iran, now well into its fifth week, has become intolerable — to the region, to global energy markets and, increasingly, to the governments trying to contain the damage. When Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Mohammad Ishaq Dar, stood up at the end of the day-long talks between foreign ministers of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt and said Islamabad was prepared to host “meaningful talks” between Washington and Tehran “in the coming days” for a “comprehensive and lasting settlement,” he was not indulging in hopeful language. He was stating the only realistic path still open.