LAHORE: The International Cricket Council on Tuesday sanctioned two of cricket’s most storied venues, awarding demerit points to Lord’s in London and Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium after match referees condemned the pitches used for recent internationals as heavily skewed in favour of bowlers.
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Pakistani and Lebanese military chiefs hold talks in Rawalpindi amid regional tensions
RAWALPINDI: The commanders of Pakistan and Lebanon’s armed forces met on Tuesday at Pakistan’s military headquarters to discuss deepening defence cooperation and the deteriorating security landscape across the Middle East, a meeting that came as Islamabad has sought to position itself as a diplomatic interlocutor in the widening conflict between Israel and Iran.
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.
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.
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.
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.
AJK Supreme Court rules refugee assembly seats can only be removed by elected parliament — not by protest
MUZAFFARABAD: The Supreme Court of Azad Jammu and Kashmir has delivered a pointed constitutional rebuke to a banned protest movement demanding the abolition of reserved seats for Kashmiri refugees, ruling that the twelve contested places in the region’s legislative assembly enjoy full constitutional protection and can be removed only through formal parliamentary amendment — not through street agitation or political pressure.