ISLAMABAD: For as long as most Pakistanis can remember, the machinery of applying for Hajj has reset every single year. A new application. A new waiting period. A fresh scramble each cycle to secure one of the coveted spots in the country’s quota for the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Lifestyle
Pakistan recalls Babar Azam as test captain for West Indies, England tours
LAHORE: Pakistan’s cricket selectors reinstated Babar Azam as Test captain on Sunday, naming him to lead the team on upcoming tours of the West Indies and England as the board seeks to arrest a decline in results under his predecessor.
Pakistan moves to ban substandard syringes following string of child HIV outbreaks
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday ordered a nationwide ban on the manufacture and use of substandard syringes, acting a day after parents of children infected with HIV at a Karachi hospital took their case to court seeking criminal charges against those responsible.
At least 40 killed as overloaded bus plunges into ravine in northwest Pakistan
QUETTA: At least 40 people were killed and eight injured on Friday when an overcrowded passenger bus plunged into a ravine on a mountain road straddling the border of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, officials said, in one of the country’s deadliest road accidents in years.
Pakistan restores internet service after subsea cable fault disrupts traffic
ISLAMABAD: Internet services across Pakistan returned to normal on Friday after engineers repaired a fault in an international submarine cable system that had disrupted connectivity for users nationwide over the preceding two days, the country’s telecommunications regulator said.
NDMA raises alert for GLOFs and flash floods across northern, central Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: The disaster management authority warned on Wednesday of an elevated risk of glacial lake outburst floods, flash floods, landslides and urban flooding across the country’s northern and central regions over the next four days, as rising temperatures and an active monsoon system combine to accelerate glacier melt and trigger heavy rain.
Seven dead as tourist boat capsizes on Pakistan’s Saifullah Lake
MINGORA: A boat carrying tourists capsized on a lake fed by Swat River on Wednesday, killing seven people, rescue officials said, the latest in a series of drowning accidents that have plagued the popular summer tourist destination.
Owners, contractor charged as Lahore buries 14 children killed in tuition-centre roof collapse
LAHORE: Police have registered a criminal case against the four owners of a private tuition centre and the contractor who built it, alleging they were piling soil onto an already decaying roof when it collapsed on a room full of students, killing 14 children, a senior police official said Wednesday.
Police reportedly detain Rs10 million bounty leader Shaukat Nawaz Mir amid confusion over confirmation
MUZAFFARABAD: A senior leader of a banned Kashmiri activist group was reported arrested on Tuesday in a security operation in Azad Kashmir, though officials declined to confirm the development for hours, leaving conflicting accounts of where and how the detention took place.
Pakistan’s Arslan Ash wins record eighth Evo title in Las Vegas
LAHORE: Pakistani esports star Arslan Siddique, known to fans worldwide as “Arslan Ash,” claimed his eighth Evolution Championship Series title on Monday, defeating South Korean rival Rangchu in the Tekken 8 final to extend his command of the world’s most prestigious fighting game tournament.