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.
People
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.
Bahria Town CEO’s overseas assets frozen in Pakistan money-laundering probe
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s premier anti-corruption agency said on Saturday it had frozen $4.5 million held in foreign bank accounts linked to the chief executive of Bahria Town, the country’s most prominent real estate developer, and his wife — the latest salvo in a sweeping money-laundering investigation that has ensnared one of Pakistan’s most powerful business dynasties.
Temperatures to hit 51°C as Pakistan faces severe heatwave through mid-June
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s national weather authority issued a sweeping heatwave warning Saturday covering most of the country, forecasting temperatures that in some districts of Sindh and Balochistan could climb as high as 51 degrees Celsius — a level of heat that poses acute risks to human life — and cautioning that the scorching conditions would persist through at least June 12.
On eve of Gilgit-Baltistan vote, Imran Khan’s PTI cries rigging as police pour in from across Pakistan
SKARDU: At a busy road cutting through this northern district, cars pass draped in the banners of rival political parties. Election symbols flicker from storefronts and party flags snap in the mountain wind. Gilgit-Baltistan, a dramatic swath of glacier and granite that borders China, Afghanistan, and Indian-administered Kashmir, is preparing to go to the polls for the first time in six years.