ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called on Monday for all sides to “give peace a little more chance” after Iran and Israel traded fire for the first time since an April ceasefire, in an escalation that complicated Islamabad’s intensive mediation efforts and rattled global markets.
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Death toll rises to eleven as Azad Kashmir clashes grow into broader crisis
RAWLAKOT: At least seven civilians and four police officers were killed on Sunday in the deadliest violence to grip Azad Jammu and Kashmir in years, as clashes between security forces and supporters of the newly banned Joint Awami Action Committee tore through Rawlakot, leaving a territory already on edge now staring down a deepening political and security crisis.
Israel strikes Iran despite Trump appeal for restraint, threatening peace talks
ISLAMABAD: Israel struck military targets across western and central Iran early on Monday, defying a direct appeal from President Trump to hold fire, in the most serious breach of a regional ceasefire since fighting paused in April and the exchange that US officials fear could unravel ongoing peace negotiations with Tehran.
A protection racket
Sometime in the next few days, the finance minister will stand before the parliament and deliver a budget speech that will include, as it has every year for at least two decades, a solemn commitment to broaden the tax base. There will be new mechanisms announced, fresh enforcement pledges made, perhaps a digital initiative or two. The FBR will be modernised again. The informal economy will be brought in from the cold, again. And next year, the same speech will be delivered again.
Five trillion rupees, and the roads still have potholes
There is a particular dishonesty embedded in the way Pakistan discusses its finances each budget season. The conversation is almost entirely about the intake side — tax-to-GDP ratios, the informal economy, FBR targets, provincial revenue shortfalls. Focusing on revenue is politically safe. It points the finger outward, at taxpayers who evade, at sectors that resist documentation, at the IMF for demanding more. What it carefully avoids is the other side of the ledger: what the state costs, who benefits from that cost, and why the people in a position to reduce it have every personal incentive not to.
Young doctors shut Quetta hospitals after colleague wounded in acid attack
QUETTA: She is 29 years old and working her shift at the Civil Hospital when a man she knew walked up to her and threw acid in her face.
Ruling coalition partners clash over tax policy ahead of federal budget
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s two largest ruling parties clashed over taxation strategy on Sunday as they raced to iron out budget differences before Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb presents the federal spending plan to parliament in less than 72 hours.
NEC meets to recast Rs4.715 trillion development budget amid IMF pressure, coalition tensions
ISLAMABAD: The National Economic Council convenes on Monday under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to overhaul a combined federal and provincial development program worth Rs4.715 trillion, with officials signalling the final numbers could shift substantially from what a subordinate planning body cleared just days ago — a reflection of the competing fiscal pressures bearing down on a government simultaneously managing an IMF bailout and an uneasy coalition.
Four policemen dead, dozens wounded as Kashmir protest movement spirals into bloodshed
RAWLAKOT: Four police officers were killed and more than 20 others wounded on Sunday in some of the worst violence to strike Azad Jammu and Kashmir in years, as clashes between security forces and supporters of a newly banned protest movement turned a regional political standoff into open bloodshed.
PPP claims victory in Gilgit-Baltistan as rivals cry foul over missing vote tallies
GILGIT: The Pakistan Peoples Party appeared on Sunday night to have won a commanding plurality in elections for the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly, with unofficial returns from across the remote Himalayan territory showing the party leading in at least 10 of the 24 directly contested seats — even as its own leaders joined rival parties in accusing election officials of withholding the paperwork that stands between a result and a verified one.