ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump said Pakistan has been testing nuclear weapons, listing it with Russia, China and North Korea as countries he said are advancing their arsenals while the United States holds to a decades-old moratorium.
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Pakistan says it foiled Indian plot by arresting fisherman forced into espionage
ISLAMABAD: Authorities said on Saturday they arrested a fisherman whom they accused Indian intelligence agencies of coercing into a scheme to fabricate evidence against Pakistan, in what the government described as a desperate bid by New Delhi to revive its tarnished image after a failed covert operation.
Pakistan’s counterterrorism push leaves record 355 militants dead in October
ISLAMABAD: Militants in Pakistan endured their most severe setbacks in a decade during October, with security forces killing 355 insurgents in intensified operations across the country, according to a monthly report released by an Islamabad-based think tank.
Minister Asif accuses India of fuelling terrorism to keep Islamabad engaged on two fronts
ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif accused India on Saturday of trying to entangle his country in conflicts on its eastern and western borders by stoking terrorism in the region, even as Islamabad works to solidify a fragile ceasefire with Afghanistan. “If there is a need for evidence, then we have it, about what involvement India has in terrorism [in Pakistan] and how it wants to keep us busy on two fronts: the eastern and western,” the minister, Khawaja Asif told a private television channel.
CM Afridi forms all-male cabinet in KP, and familiar barriers for women persist
PESHAWAR: After days of uncertainty, the provincial northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province finalised its cabinet, swearing in 10 provincial ministers while appointing two advisers and a special assistant to the chief minister.
Pakistan partially reopens key Afghan border for refugee repatriation
PESHAWAR: Pakistan partially reopened a key border crossing with Afghanistan on Saturday, allowing thousands of stranded Afghan refugees to return home after nearly three weeks of closure prompted by deadly clashes between the two nations’ forces.
PPP gains ground in Kashmir, prepares to oust prime minister
ISLAMABAD: The chairman of Pakistan’s People’s Party, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, said his party stood ready to form a government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, vowing to end the political turmoil that has gripped the region and reaffirming the party’s historic commitment to the Kashmiri cause.
Minister Asif disowns colleague’s claim Pakistani troops would disarm Hamas
ISLAMABAD: Defence minister Khawaja Asif on Friday forcefully disavowed comments by a government spokesman suggesting that Pakistani troops deployed to a new international force in Gaza would help disarm Hamas, highlighting tensions within the government over a prospective, and politically fraught, commitment.
Punjab govt consolidates Imran Khan’s May 9 cases for video trials in anti-terrorism court
RAWALPINDI: The provincial Punjab government notified on Friday that 11 criminal complaints filed against former Prime Minister Imran Khan in connection with the deadly riots that erupted two years ago would be tried together before a single anti-terrorism court here, with Khan set to appear via video link from the high-security Adiala Jail where he has been held for more than two years.
Fragile new truce with Taliban hinges on Kabul’s action against militants
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday portrayed a fragile new truce with the Afghan Taliban as a hard-won step toward peace along their volatile border, but one laden with stern conditions and deep scepticism, as Islamabad demanded verifiable action against militants using Afghan soil to stage attacks inside its soil.