ISLAMABAD: The government conceded to parliament on Monday that public debt rose sharply in fiscal 2025, pushing the debt-to-GDP ratio higher and increasing the per-capita burden even as fiscal consolidation measures took hold and macroeconomic conditions improved.
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India plots false-flag border operation using Pakistani detainees to mask diplomatic reversals
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security officials said on Monday that Indian authorities are preparing a false-flag operation against Pakistan that would press innocent Pakistani detainees held in Indian prisons — including Kashmiris who crossed the border inadvertently — into service as unwitting participants in a staged border provocation.
Pakistan’s top leaders hold talks on security and economic strain amid regional tensions
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday to review the country’s national security situation and the array of economic and energy challenges confronting Pakistan, the President’s Secretariat said.
Kuwait assures Pakistan of full diesel and jet fuel deliveries
ISLAMABAD: Kuwait has pledged to provide full logistical support for diesel and jet fuel shipments to Pakistan, ending a supply impasse caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran.
Subsidised fuel for rickshaws, bikes in pipeline
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz said the government is moving to protect lower- and middle-income Pakistanis from the impact of higher fuel prices triggered by the global energy shock following the war involving Iran.
PCB fines Naseem Shah Rs20 million over social media post on Maryam Nawaz
LAHORE Fast bowler Naseem Shah was on Monday handed a Rs20 million fine by the Pakistan Cricket Board for breaching multiple clauses of his central contract after a social media post that criticised Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.
A court acquits two lawmakers and six others in 2018 triple murder of political family in Sindh
KARACHI: A court on Monday acquitted all eight defendants — including two members of the Sindh provincial assembly — in the 2018 assassination of a former union council chairman from the Pakistan Peoples Party and his two sons, ruling that prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence to secure convictions.
FM Dar, injured in a fall, heads to Beijing to consult on month-old US-Iran conflict
ISLAMABAD: The deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, will leave Tuesday for an official visit to China even though he suffered a hairline fracture in his shoulder the day before, the Foreign Office said Monday, a move that officials described as a measure of how seriously Islamabad takes its deepening role in trying to end the fighting between the United States and Iran.
Pakistan caps fuel costs with Rs125 billion package
ISLAMABAD The government on Sunday diverted 125 billion rupees from savings and development budgets to block any increase in oil prices, protecting consumers from the immediate fallout of the regional war that has driven global crude to two-year highs.
Pakistan says US and Iran have expressed confidence in it to host direct peace talks
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said on Sunday that both Washington and Tehran had voiced confidence in Islamabad’s ability to facilitate talks aimed at ending the Middle East conflict that has engulfed the region since US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.