ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s weather authorities warned on Monday that the first organised monsoon spell of the season would sweep across the country from July 1 to 6, bringing heavy rain, flash flooding and the risk of urban inundation to large swathes of the nation still recovering from successive years of devastating floods.
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Pakistan hands PIA management to Arif Habib-led consortium in landmark privatization
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan formally handed over management control of its loss-making national carrier to a private consortium on Monday, marking the most significant privatisation in the country’s history and ending years of attempts to offload the debt-laden airline.
Pakistan to host international seminar on Indus Waters Treaty rights amid standoff with India
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s said on Monday that the Indus Waters Treaty governing the sharing of river waters with India remains legally binding and cannot be revoked or amended by either side unilaterally, as tensions over water rights between the nuclear-armed neighbours continued to simmer more than a year after New Delhi suspended the accord.
Pakistan summons Afghan diplomat over Karachi Rangers attack
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan summoned the Afghan chargé d’affaires on Monday and issued a formal protest over a weekend attack on a paramilitary facility in Karachi, hours after the government confirmed it had launched ground and air strikes against militant targets across the Afghan border, killing 29 fighters.
Imran Khan’s lawyers granted two-week delay to argue graft case appeal
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Monday granted a two-week adjournment to lawyers for jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to begin arguments in their appeal against convictions in a corruption case, after dismissing contempt petitions the couple had filed against jail authorities.
Tax officials grilled over missing tobacco revenue data, Rs40 bln in unpaid dues
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) failed to produce data demanded by a Senate sub-committee on tobacco taxation on Monday, prompting lawmakers to order a 20-year accounting of the industry’s tax payments, factory registrations and outstanding dues that officials say could total billions of rupees.
Pakistan taps Reko Diq miner for $390m bridge loan to revive decrepit Balochistan rail line – report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan plans to finance the rehabilitation of a near-derelict 996-kilometre railway line through Balochistan with a $390 million bridge loan from the Canadian-Pakistani mining venture developing the country’s giant Reko Diq copper and gold deposit, documents reviewed by Dawn newspaper show, with the arrangement drawing pointed scrutiny from the country’s top planning body over repayment risks and an unusually large security bill.
Bhutto’s PPP fields 35 candidates for AJK vote, seals alliance with Islamist JUI-F
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party and the Islamist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl formalised an electoral alliance on Sunday for Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s July 27 legislative elections, with the two parties agreeing to field joint candidates in two constituencies as competition for the 53-seat assembly intensified across a politically volatile region.
GB chief minister’s oath postponed as Bilawal heads to Iran for Khamenei funeral
GILGIT: The swearing-in of the newly elected Gilgit-Baltistan chief minister has been postponed after the head of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party left for Iran to attend funeral proceedings for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the party said on Sunday.
Muzaffarabad limps back to life as proscribed group fights to stay relevant ahead of AJK polls
MUZAFFARABAD: Leaders of a proscribed political alliance in Azad Kashmir are pressing supporters to boycott next month’s regional elections, with officials accusing them of stoking unrest to preserve their own relevance as a weeks-long general strike begins to unravel.