ISLAMABAD: Efforts by regional powers, including Pakistan, to broker a ceasefire between the United States and Iran have collapsed, with Tehran formally rejecting planned direct talks in Islamabad and branding American demands unacceptable, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Politics
‘How will we feed our children?’: Pakistan’s record fuel price hike sends shock waves to streets
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s top political adviser on Friday blamed an unprecedented surge in global oil prices — triggered by the escalating US-Israeli conflict with Iran — for the sharpest one-day increase in Pakistan’s petroleum prices in recent memory, insisting the government had exhausted every option to shield consumers before passing on the burden.
Imran Khan, wife seek urgent hearings to overturn Toshakhana conviction and suspend Al-Qadir Trust sentence
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, on Friday asked the Islamabad High Court to immediately schedule their long-pending appeals to overturn a graft conviction and suspend their sentences in a separate corruption case, accusing the prosecution of “inordinate delays” and “dilatory tactics” that have kept them behind bars for years.
Five killed, 13 hurt in suicide attack on police station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden vehicle rammed into the rear of the Domel Police Station in this northwestern district late on Thursday, killing at least five civilians and injuring 13 others, including one police officer, authorities said Friday.
Defence Minister Asif warns India of ‘drastic consequences’ for nuclear miscalculation
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif warned his Indian counterpart on Thursday that any armed conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations would be “inconceivable” and carry “drastic consequences,” delivering a pointed rebuke amid rising tensions over the anniversary of last year’s attack in Indian occupied Kashmir.
Security forces kill 8 Indian-linked TTP militants in North Waziristan border clash
ISLAMABAD: The security forces killed eight militants in an intelligence-based operation along the Afghanistan border in North Waziristan district, the military said Thursday, recovering weapons and ammunition and using the episode to sharpen its criticism of the Taliban-led government in Kabul.
PM Sharif urges provinces to slash development spending, prioritise relief as oil crisis deepens from Iran war
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called on federal and four provinces governments on Thursday to set aside political differences, curtail development spending and redirect resources toward agriculture, public goods and transport as the country confronts the economic fallout from the global oil crisis triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Eight Muslim-majority nations, including Pakistan, denounce Israeli death penalty law for Palestinians as ‘apartheid’ escalation
ISLAMABAD: Eight Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan and close US partners Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, issued a joint condemnation Thursday of a new Israeli law that makes death by hanging the default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of carrying out deadly attacks in the occupied West Bank.
Pakistan opens talks with Afghanistan in China, insisting on action against militants as border operation continues
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has sent a senior delegation to the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi for talks with Afghan officials aimed at resolving escalating border tensions, even as its military continues a counterterrorism operation inside Afghanistan, the Foreign Office said on Thursday.
Pakistan dismisses Afghan claims of border fence removal as fabricated
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday rejected as “fabricated and devoid of facts” claims by the Afghan Taliban that barbed wire fencing along the Durand Line had been dismantled or was being removed.