ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif landed in Saudi Arabia on Thursday for a tightly scheduled diplomatic mission, touching down amid a Middle East crisis that shows no signs of easing after weeks of Iranian retaliation against US and Israeli targets.
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Pakistan and Afghanistan pause cross-border fire to recover Afghan national’s corpse, only for talks to falter
TORKHAM: Pakistani and Afghan border forces agreed Thursday to a temporary halt in their persistent cross-border skirmishes so that delegations of local elders could retrieve the body of an Afghan national that had lain unclaimed for days at the Zero Point of the Torkham crossing.
Pakistan quietly pushes for diplomacy as Tehran rejects US cease-fire proposals
ISLAMABA: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday that reparations and firm international guarantees against future aggression were the only way to end the war ignited by Israel and the United States, issuing the demand in a late-night post on X after separate conversations with the leaders of Pakistan and Russia.
SBP grants temporary CIF relief for oil imports as war-risk costs spike
ISLAMABAD: The central bank has temporarily permitted imports of crude oil and petroleum products on a cost-insurance-and-freight basis, a move aimed at sidestepping soaring war-risk premiums and freight costs that have paralysed conventional shipping arrangements amid tensions in the Middle East.
Foreign assistance rises 13 percent to $5.17 billion in seven months on Saudi, ADB support
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan received $5.17 billion in foreign loans and grants from July 2025 through January 2026, a 12.77% increase from $4.58 billion in the same period a year earlier, data from the Economic Affairs Division showed.
IMF makes ‘considerable progress’ with Pakistan on loan reviews as Middle East tensions extend talks
ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund said it has made considerable progress in talks with Pakistani authorities on the third review of the country’s Extended Fund Facility and the second review of its Resilience and Sustainability Facility, even as discussions continue to gauge the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict.
Nadra purges 4.2 million dead citizens from national registry to thwart fraud
ISLAMABAD: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has canceled roughly 4.2 million computerized national identity cards belonging to citizens officially recorded as dead in provincial civil registration systems, the agency said on Wednesday, part of a nationwide drive to reconcile its records and protect the integrity of the country’s central identity database.
PNSC tankers load at Yanbu and Fujairah as Pakistan bypasses closed strait of Hormuz
KARACHI: Pakistan has started importing crude oil via the Red Sea route after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz halted traditional shipments amid the Middle East conflict, Geo television reported, quoting shipping sources.
Pakistan says 641 Afghan Taliban militants killed in month-long border offensive
ISLAMABAD: The security forces have killed at least 641 Afghan Taliban operatives and wounded more than 855 others in a month-long border offensive that has become the most intense fighting between the two neighbors in decades, information minister said on Wednesday.
‘No matter what, no matter when’ Pakistan reaffirms ironclad commitment to Saudi Arabia ‘before it is needed’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will stand with Saudi Arabia in any crisis, no matter the timing or circumstances, the government’s chief spokesman for foreign media said on Wednesday, as the conflict set off by US-Israeli strikes on Iran threatens to draw in more countries across the region.