ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the United States said negotiations over a reciprocal trade framework have advanced substantially, with officials from both governments pledging to wrap up the agreement soon following a virtual meeting between Islamabad’s finance minister and Washington’s top trade negotiator.
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US and Iran edge towards Hormuz deal despite deep mistrust
ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump said the United States and Iran had held “very good discussions” during all-day negotiations on Tuesday, as diplomats inched towards a deal that could finally reopen the Strait of Hormuz after five months of war have throttled a fifth of the world’s oil and gas trade.
Pakistan warns Al-Aqsa incursions could draw region into wider conflict
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has called on Arab and Muslim-majority countries to present a united front against Israeli actions in Jerusalem, warning that repeated incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by settlers risk dragging the wider region, and adherents of multiple faiths, into a broader conflict.
PM Sharif courts foreign investors to revive Pakistan’s power utilities privatization drive
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered officials to draw up a “comprehensive strategy” for luring international investors into the country’s power-distribution privatization program and told the Privatization Commission to finish its own institutional overhaul within a month, as the government presses ahead with a sale process the International Monetary Fund has linked to broader fiscal reform.
Bodies of Nirmal Purja and three teammates brought down from Broad Peak; three still missing
GILGIT: A rescue team has brought the bodies of the celebrated climber Nirmal Purja and three members of his expedition down to the base camp of Broad Peak, the Pakistani mountain on which they died in an avalanche last week, the Alpine Club of Pakistan has confirmed.
Pakistan’s leaders renew solidarity with occupied Kashmir on seventh anniversary of India’s annexation of disputed territory
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s president, prime minister and military chiefs delivered a coordinated message of solidarity with Kashmiris on Wednesday, using the seventh anniversary of India’s decision to strip the disputed region of its special constitutional status to renew calls for international intervention.
Pakistan and US pledge closer counterterrorism cooperation as deadliest month on record grips border regions
ISLAMABAD: The United States and Pakistan have agreed to deepen their counterterrorism partnership, holding a fourth round of high-level talks in Washington that named four militant groups as the principal threats to regional stability, even as Pakistan endures its deadliest month of violence so far this year.
PTI launches nationwide protests on third anniversary of Imran Khan’s imprisonment
ISLAMABAD: Supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan were preparing to take to the streets across the country on Wednesday, as his party marked three years since his imprisonment with a wave of protests it says will continue until his release.
Flash floods and glacial melt cut off Karakoram Highway as hundreds stranded in Gilgit-Baltistan
GILGIT: Hundreds of tourists and residents were left stranded across Gilgit-Baltistan on Tuesday after cloudbursts and rapid glacial melting triggered flash floods that tore through homes, roads, bridges and farmland in the mountainous northern region of Pakistan.
Pakistan revives plan to break up gas utilities into five firms
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is reviving a long-stalled plan to break up its two dominant gas utilities into five separate companies, reopening a restructuring effort that regulators and consultants derailed six years ago on concerns it wasn’t financially sound.