ISLAMABAD: A punishing overnight deluge sent floodwaters surging through Pakistan’s twin cities on Tuesday, submerging roads, breaching sealed basements and pushing a critical drainage channel to its highest level in three years, prompting authorities to shutter schools and mobilise the army alongside emergency crews.
Lifestyle
Lawmakers challenge Pims fire probe over missing footage, disputed infant count
ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers in both houses of the parliament pressed officials on Monday over gaps in the investigation into a nursery fire that killed 14 infants at a major Islamabad hospital, with committee members in the National Assembly and Senate raising pointed questions about incomplete surveillance footage, uncertain casualty figures, and the qualifications of hospital leadership.
IHC seeks govt response on social media age limits for children
ISLAMABAD: A senior judge on Monday ordered five government ministries and two regulatory bodies to explain, within two weeks, what they intend to do about children’s access to social media — the latest sign that Pakistan’s courts, not its parliament, have become the venue of choice for those pushing to rein in how minors use the internet.
Pakistan axes seven seniors in mass Test overhaul after England humiliation
LAHORE: Pakistan cricket has undergone a dramatic shake-up after the Pakistan Cricket Board released seven Test squad members, including senior figures Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha, following a chastening series defeat to England.
Volunteer climbers recover mountaineer Asma Mushtaq’s body 10 days after fatal descent from Spantik Peak
GILGIT: A team of volunteer climbers recovered the body of Pakistani mountaineer Asma Mushtaq on Monday, nearly 10 days after she died descending Spantik Peak in Gilgit-Baltistan, the Alpine Club of Pakistan said.
Supreme Court won’t fast-track Imran Khan contempt petition; Islamabad court says private care isn’t a prisoner’s right
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday rebuffed a second attempt by the sister of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan to accelerate contempt proceedings against government officials accused of defying a court order to move him to a private hospital, even as a separate court in the capital rejected pleas from three other inmates seeking the same treatment.
Second autopsy contradicts suicide finding in Mir Raza Ali’s death
KARACHI: A second post-mortem examination has found that the gunshot wound that killed a 25-year-old businessman in Karachi last month is inconsistent with suicide, contradicting the theory police pursued for weeks after his body was discovered — and reigniting a legal battle over who should investigate his death.
The internet married Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. He would like a divorce
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari spent the weekend watching the internet marry him off. By Monday, the chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party had heard enough. In a video statement posted to social media, he said that he is not engaged, is not getting married, and has never met the Austrian noblewoman the rumors had already fitted him for a wedding suit alongside.
Zardari, son face fresh denial over engagement reports as speculation drags into a second week
KARACHI: For more than a week, a rumour has been moving through Pakistani media and social media: that President Asif Ali Zardari’s trip abroad was really about arranging a marriage for his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the 38-year-old chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party. The party has now denied it twice, in effect — once flatly, and once by staying silent as an even more detailed version of the story emerged anyway.
Health minister Kamal proposes ending permanent hospital jobs after fatal newborn fire
ISLAMABAD: The health minister called for eliminating permanent civil-service positions at government hospitals, proposing instead that a chief executive recruited from the private sector be given full hiring and firing authority — a sweeping restructuring plan floated just days after a fire killed 14 newborns at a hospital in the capital.