PESHAWAR: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf faces a deepening internal rebellion in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where more than 30 members of the provincial assembly have coalesced into a dissident bloc demanding aggressive action to secure the release of the party’s imprisoned founder, Imran Khan — and threatening to bring down the provincial government’s budget if their demands are not met.
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Shops shut and streets empty in Azad Kashmir as banned group defies crackdown with long march to Muzaffarabad
RAWALAKOT: The streets of this mountain city in Azad Jammu and Kashmir were quiet on Monday under a second consecutive day of shuttered shops and absent traffic — an uneasy stillness that followed weekend clashes that left eleven people dead, including four law enforcement officers, and that a banned political committee was seeking to channel into a region-wide general strike and protest march.
Pakistan’s budget teeters as centre seeks to claw back Rs1.2 trillion from provinces
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s budget preparations descended into open disarray on Monday as the government postponed a key economic planning meeting for the third consecutive time, struggled to win International Monetary Fund backing for a controversial revenue-sharing manoeuvre, and faced a provincial revolt over a demand to claw back more than Rs1.2 trillion that would otherwise flow to the country’s four provinces under a constitutional formula.
Ruling allies strike budget deal, but date remains in flux
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s two principal ruling coalition partners reached broad agreement on Monday on the framework for the country’s federal budget, with the Pakistan Peoples Party signalling it would back the fiscal plan put forward by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government — even as uncertainty lingered over when the budget would actually be presented.
Pakistan receives second spot LNG cargo since Iran war upended regional energy trade
KARACHI: A liquefied natural gas tanker docked at Karachi’s Port Qasim on Sunday, marking only the second spot cargo the country has received since the Iran war severed regional energy supply chains and effectively closed one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints.
PPP wins most seats in Gilgit-Baltistan vote but needs allies to govern
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ruling coalition partner, the Pakistan Peoples Party, won the most seats in an election in the northern territory of Gilgit-Baltistan on Monday but fell short of a majority, leaving independent candidates with the power to determine who governs a region that sits at the heart of Beijing’s signature infrastructure push into South Asia.
BISP chief calls on critics to apologise for ‘beggar’ slur against aid recipients
ISLAMABAD: The head of Pakistan’s flagship social protection programme called on Monday for critics to apologise to millions of beneficiaries whose dignity she said had been wounded by remarks likening state welfare payments to a vehicle for turning recipients into beggars.
Pakistan steps up diplomacy to free crew held by Somali pirates as $4m ransom talks stall
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is intensifying diplomatic pressure to secure the release of crew members held hostage aboard an oil tanker seized by Somali pirates nearly seven weeks ago, with senior officials acknowledging that negotiations over a ransom demand have yet to yield a breakthrough.
Pakistan’s top court rules acid attacks more heinous than homicide, calls for sweeping reforms
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan declared acid attacks a graver crime than homicide in a landmark ruling on Monday, calling on federal and provincial governments to establish a national rehabilitation fund for survivors, impose sweeping restrictions on the sale of corrosive substances and extend disability protections to victims of what the court described as an assault on the soul as much as the body.
Pakistan tells UK to stay out of Kashmir affairs as death toll rises in protest crackdown
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Ministry on Monday sharply rebuked members of the British-Pakistani diaspora and several British lawmakers over their comments on unrest in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, telling them to stay out of the country’s internal affairs as at least seven civilians lay dead following clashes between security forces and protesters in the territory.