ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday threw out the convictions of two men sentenced to death for their alleged roles in the 2012 Baldia Town factory fire in Karachi — a blaze that killed more than 260 garment workers and stands as the deadliest industrial disaster in the country’s history — ruling that prosecutors had failed to establish their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
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Pakistan braces for storms and flooding even as Karachi swelters under historic heat
KARACHI: The thermometer read 37 degrees Celsius when afternoon arrived Wednesday in this coastal megacity of some 20 million people, but for anyone stepping outside, that number told only part of the story.
Pakistan extends austerity drive to June 30, eases corner store hours
ISLAMABAD: The government extended its austerity and fuel conservation program by nearly three weeks on Wednesday, pushing the expiry date to June 30 and granting small grocery and neighbourhood convenience stores an extra hour of trading time each day, in the latest adjustment to a belt-tightening drive that has reshaped the country’s commercial calendar since March.
Pakistan’s $4.5 billion Balochistan refinery bets on deep-conversion technology to cut import bill
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is moving to establish its first deep-conversion greenfield refinery, a $4.5 billion project in the coastal industrial district of Hub that its developers say could reshape the country’s energy import profile and anchor a broader petrochemical buildout along its southwestern coast.
Ten killed, including children, after van plunges into ravine and burns on Islamabad-Murree road
ISLAMABAD: They had set out from Multan in the middle of the night, 23 members of the same family, bound for the cool air and pine-forested hills of Murree. By Wednesday morning, 10 of them were dead — among them children — killed not only by the crash that sent their van tumbling into a roadside ravine but by the fire that followed, and by a sliding door that would not open.
Pakistan remittances hit record $4.3 billion in May, setting up historic annual total
KARACHI: Pakistan received a record $4.3 billion in workers’ remittances in May, the State Bank of Pakistan said Wednesday, driven by surging inflows from the Gulf states and the United Kingdom that have put the country on course for an unprecedented full-year total as it navigates a delicate IMF-backed stabilization program.
Pakistan strikes militant hideouts along Afghan border, killing 26, as tensions spiral
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan carried out airstrikes on militant hideouts along its volatile northwestern border with Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing 26 fighters, the government said, in retaliation for a string of deadly attacks that have claimed the lives of soldiers and police officers across the country’s restive frontier provinces in recent weeks.
Islamabad rewires its budget architecture, freezing provincial shares to plug a trillion-rupee gap
ISLAMABAD: The government has brokered a sweeping fiscal compact with its two most populous provinces, freezing their shares of national tax revenues and redirecting a portion back to the Centre in a financial restructuring that officials say is essential to fund defence priorities and honour commitments to the International Monetary Fund.
No survivors after army helicopter Mi-17 crashes near Muzaffarabad; inquiry ordered
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan Army Mi-17 helicopter crashed near Muzaffarabad on Wednesday, killing all personnel on board when the aircraft went down during takeoff due to what military officials described as a technical fault, marking the third deadly helicopter accident involving security or government in less than one year.
Imran Khan barred from family visits again despite court order, sister says
ISLAMABAD: The sisters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan were turned away from Adiala Jail on Tuesday for what his family says has become a months-long pattern of denied visits in defiance of a court order granting him regular access to relatives and legal counsel.